INDIA: Failure of
Budget in addressing impacts of Climate Change on farmers
Indian farmers, the backbone of India’s economy, are going
through serious crises. Low income, high
level of distress and related suicides of the farmers are a daily news in the
country. The Government of India has now
come up with latest statistics that shows that a much worse future awaits the
farmers who feed the nation and are guardians of ensuring food security.
The Economic Survey for 2017-2018, a report that the Govt.
of India brings out before presenting the annual Budget in the Parliament, has said
that climate change will induce a decrease in incomes of farmers of the country
by as much as 25 percent in some parts of the country. It says, “climate change could reduce annual
agricultural incomes in the range of 15% to 18% on average, and up to 20% to
25% for unirrigated areas.” This is no good news for the farmers who are
already suffering from low income and distress and for whom the government has
been planning a strategy that would double their income by 2022[1]. The farm income, which stands at an average
of roughly 78000 INR (approx 1219 USD), will reduce by upto 25 percent.
There is also huge income inequality among farmers in
India. Statistics point out that the
small & medium size land holding farmers, who form about 85 per cent of the
total farmers, earn only 9 percent of the total income of farmers in the
country. The rest earn almost 91 percent[2]. If India really wants to build farmers’
resilience against climate change then it has to focus a lot more on the small
farmers who are in most vulnerable conditions at the moment.
Climate Scorecard Rank - * (One star)
However, the Union Budget that followed (the Economic
Survey), did not mention anything about how to make the farmers ‘climate
resilient’. The Government has announced
certain schemes for farm development, but they do not go quite well with the
findings of the Economic Survey with regard to climate induced vulnerabilities
that the farmers will face. There are a
few schemes that the government has announced to help farmers grow their income
but they fall too short to make them climate resilient. Climate Scorecard therefore gives this action of Govt. of India only one Star!
Take Action –
With this scenario in the background, we request you to send
messages to the Indian Finance Minister asking him to amend the budgetary
proposals immediately and make fresh and appropriate budgetary allocation to
increase irrigation coverage to cover the small farmers. Such schemes can
include irrigation plans that are based around small and medium systems
including tanks, other water harvesting structures, lift irrigation, check
dams, etc; support the rain-fed farmers with a strong crop insurance scheme
that takes care of not only the complete cost of farming but also ensures a
profit above that so that the farmers affected by climate change do not fall
into the trap of perennial poverty.
Please
address your letters/emails/tweets to:
Shri Arun Jaitley
Finance Minister (FM)
23092810,23092510
134/North Block, New Delhi
Twitter handle: @finminindia
Or
Shri Simanchala Dash
PS to FM
23092810,23092501,
23093868, 23094399
136-A/North Block, New
Delhi
Email: smn.dash@nic.in
For further details, contact:
Ranjan K Panda
Country Manager for
India, Climate Scorecard Project
Convenor, Combat
Climate Change Network, India
Email: ranjanpanda@gmail.com
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