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Vinson Kurian

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Feb. 28

CROP diversification has at best remained an esoteric concept that every Finance Minister has ritualistically paid lip service to in Union Budgets down the years; but Mr Jaswant Singh has been bold enough to differ, according to experts.

Mr Singh has clearly provided a direction to the Indian farmer by aggressively promoting the cause of horticulture and floriculture and in respect of which a major initiative has been announced. He has also referred to the formulation of a Central sector scheme on high-tech horticulture and precision farming. Major components of the scheme are high-tech inventions as fertigation, use of biotech tools, `green food' production and high-tech green houses. Deployment of precision farming technology is aimed at the judicious utilisation of resources like land, water, sunlight as well as time, including demonstration of these technologies.

According to Mr C. P. John, Member, Kerala State Planning Board, this is the best thing to happen to farmers, particularly for those in Kerala. The State is already an exporter of horticultural products and the new initiative would help, apart from further cementing its position, open up a new opportunity in floriculture as well. The State had all the right attributes to make its presence felt in floriculture.

Precision farming, similarly, would be a godsend for States whose natural endowments in terms of available farming resources are limited. Also, the problem of small sizes of land holdings, if not their complete unavailability, also can be got around by promoting homestead farming and even terrace farming. Fertigation is an Israeli concept but has more than made up for its cost implications by being able to return three times the production and four times by way of prices.

But, sources in the State Government said the Finance Minister's preference for horticulture was flawed in the sense the country is already world's leading producer of fruits and vegetables. Further boost to their production would lead to a disaster on the market front, they averred. According to them, precision farming is no big deal as it is already being practiced in States as Punjab, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh. According to sources in the Association of Planters of Kerala (APK), the Union Budget's thrust to drip irrigation is a welcome move and this can be a blessing to the cardamom growers.

The one announcement which seemed to agitate policy watchers was the abolishment of excise duty of Re 1 per kg on tea only to be replaced by a cess of Re 1 per kg `for creating a separate fund for development, modernisation and rehabilitation of the tea plantations. The tea industry has been demanding the lifting of the duty altogether but had never bargained for a cess. The rub-off effect would adversely hit State Government revenues, according to Mr John.

According to APK, the development scheme introduced in coffee on the lines of the Tea Development Scheme under Section 33AB of the Income Tax Act, is a step in the right direction. This should have been extended to rubber also. Mr Ullas Menon, an office-bearer of United Planters Association of Southern India (UPASI), also concurred with this view.

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Jaswant leaves wry smile in farm sector — Plumps for diversification

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