June 16, 2024
Farmer’s Leader

A compassionate CM rose to farmers’ distress

The agricultural woes of Maharashtra are many decades old with intensities varying with the vagaries of the weather. Sporadic firefighting approaches by some governments only produced short-term relief but problems continued. When Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the CM of the state in October 2014, the farm sector, devastated by one of the worst droughts, looked up to him for a turnaround of fate. Devendra Fadnavis, a compassionate CM and never a believer in a quick-fix solution, introduced India’s largest agricultural project Jalyukta Shiver Abhiyan to turn the villages from water-deficient to water-sufficient and improve the rural economy. 

Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan started in 2015, was a transformative program comprising a large number of activities over a long time with a target of water empowerment for 25000 villages. 

However, the successive droughts from 2012 onwards had put the farming community in grave distress, with news of farmers committing suicide after failing to repay loans. Of the 13.6 million farmers in the state, 48.9% are marginal farmers, and 29.5% are small farmers. The small and marginal farmers have small lands (1-2 hectares), which are their only source of livelihood. Banks provide loans to these people to help them survive through crop destruction and livestock loss due to calamities, poor monsoons, pests, or other reasons and continue farming to resile. But loans need to be repaid. Before the Fadnavis government took charge, small and marginal farmers were already on the edge due to successive droughts. Also, crops were damaged due to hail and heavy rains in some areas. The scanty rainfall in 2015 and a relatively good one in 2016 couldn’t help their condition, which took a severe blow in the worst drought of 2014.

Shetkari Samman Scheme: The largest-ever loan waiver in the country

Acknowledging the farmers’ distress and the need to salvage them on the war footing, the Fadnavis government took a historic decision following a cabinet meeting on June 24 2017 to announce a Rs. 34,000 crore farm loan waiver package. The scheme was named Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krushi Sanman Yojana, the largest-ever loan waiver in the country, to help an estimated 89 lakh farmers. According to CM Fadnavis, the waiver was directed at helping all debt-ridden farmers and the small and marginal ones entirely so that they could continue farming with dignity and happiness returns to their lives again.  But, he admitted that the mountainous loan waiver amount would create a burden on the state Treasury. Assuring that this step would make 90 % of farmers completely loan-free, the CM also made it clear that only marginal farmers and “genuine farmers” who had a track record of paying off loans would be the beneficiaries of the scheme.

What is a loan waiver package and why was it necessary?

In a largely agriculture-based economy like India, the health of the farm sector is crucial, which reflects farmers’ conditions and the rural economy. Besides taking various steps to improve farm production, governments adopt schemes to help the farmers, especially the small and marginal sections, to survive through bad seasons and improve through good seasons. A farm loan waiver is an instrument of the government to buy out debts of farmers partly or fully, usually under certain conditions.

There are nearly 135 lakh farmers in our state. Many of these farmers have to take loans for farming i.e. seeds, fertilizers, implements etc. These farmers depend on district central cooperative banks and commercial banks for these farm loans. These banks provide loans to farmers at zero percent or subsidized rates. So there is no financial stress on the farmers. Once the crop is ready, the loan is repaid from the proceeds of selling it. But if crops are damaged due to drought or heavy rains or other natural calamities, the farmers face a big crisis. All the money spent on crops and hard work are wasted, on the other hand, if the loan taken from the banks is not repaid within the given period, there will be difficulties in getting the loan in the future. A similar situation had arisen in four consecutive years from 2012-13 to 2015-16. In many districts of the state, crops were damaged due to insufficient rainfall. In 2013-14 and 2014-15, farmers also suffered losses due to hail and heavy rains in some areas. Due to this continuous loss, it became difficult for the farmers to survive. Some farmers tried to start afresh by taking loans from private lenders. But no one can resist the whims of nature. As a result, some farmers took the option of suicide to escape from the private moneylenders for repayment of loans.

Small and marginal farmers were the principal beneficiaries

The Shetkari Yojana was designed to waive off the farm loans of marginal farmers with immediate effect. Loan amount up to Rs.1.5 Lakh for each farmer was made the upper limit. However, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ruled out blanket waivers and emphasized proper selection criteria to identify the eligible candidates. The scheme was targeted at benefiting 89 Lakh farmers of which 40 Lakh was expected to be completely debt free. All ministers and MLAs contributed their one-month salary to support the loan waiver scheme. 

Guidelines for the Farm Loan Waiver

Since the previous loan waiver scheme in 2008 during the Congress-NCP government was found to be scam-ridden, depriving distressed peasants of the benefits intended for them, the Fadnavis government set eligibility guidelines in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krushi Sanman Yojana. It said the scheme would apply to only those farmers who had a history of repaying their loans regularly. This was done to ensure that the credit culture and discipline were not disturbed. Priority was given to the farmers dependent solely on farming for livelihood and those who genuinely deserved loan relief.

At first, it covered only those farmers who had outstanding debts between April 1, 2012 and June 30, 2016.  However, the ambit of the loan waiver scheme or the Shetkari Sanman Yojana Maharashtra was expanded later to include even those farmers, who had taken loans after 2008. The guidelines also defined the eligible farmer, what type of loan could be considered under the waiver scheme, and the definition of a nuclear family. If a farmer and his wife had outstanding agricultural loans, the higher amount between the two debts would be considered for waiver. Also, this scheme disqualified the present and former Ministers, Ministers of State, present and former Members of Parliament, present and former Legislature Members, Zilla Parishad Members, Municipal Corporation Members, all officials and employees of the Central and State Governments as well as parastatals and aided institutions for this loan waiver. However, the list exempted Class IV employees in the state government. 

Bold decision for the sake of farmers’ welfare

At a time when the state had a debt in excess of Rs. 3.73 Lakh Cr. taking a further burden of Rs. 34000 Cr. was a bold step, Devendra Fadnavis said his government would drastically cut expenditure on key projects as his government was desperate to rescue the farming community and restore happiness in the villages. The Shetkari Yojana was designed after consultation with all leading political parties and the farmer representatives. Devendra Fadnavis stated that “we are concerned more about the farmers than of politicians. Fortunately, we have been able to convince the farmers and leading politicians too.”

2015

Tweets

2017

×

GR

×
×
×
×

Related Videos

By Devgatha

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *