Demands unmet, farmers upset

Trichy: Farmers are disappointed that their long-pending demand to implement M S Swaminathan’s recommendations on fixing minimum support price (MSP) for various crops and waiving crop loans have not been addressed in the Union government’s interim budget tabled on Thursday. They hoped that their expectations will be met in the full budget after the elections.“Announcement of long-pending demands of MSP for paddy, sugarcane and wheat according to Dr Swaminathan’s recommendations were absent in the budget,” said N Veerasekaran, state spokesperson of Bharathiya Kisan Sangam. Farmers expect new water management projects to be developed to overcome heavy rain and subsequent flood impacts, he added.Tamil Nadu Cauvery Farmers Protection Association secretary Swamimalai S Vimalnathan said the Union government had allocated about Rs 25,000 crore for cleaning Ganga but no funds have been allocated to clean Cauvery. “In the Prime Minister's Kisan Yojna Scheme, not a rupee has been allocated to the 2 crore tenant farmers in the country. In the last nine years, the Union government waived off crores of rupees of loans of corporate companies but not a single rupee of loan of any farmer,” he said. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise to double the income of farmers has not materialised so far. “At least the government could have exempted GST for farmers when they buy agricultural devices and machinery,” he added. “In the run-up to the Parliament elections, the aim of the interim budget was development-focused,” said Mahadanapuram V Rajaram, president of Tamil Nadu Cauvery Delta Farmers' Welfare Association.

Trichy farmers in export dilemma

Farmers in Trichy struggle to master the market for value-added agro products. The Department of Agricultural Marketing and Agribusiness organized a seminar to educate farmers on exporting without intermediaries. The majority of farmers find the registration process and export procedures tedious.

Union Cabinet clears pre-election interim Budget 2024-25

The Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the pre-election budget 2024-25. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her sixth budget in the Lok Sabha, matching the record set by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai. Sitharaman has surpassed her predecessors, including Manmohan Singh, Arun Jaitley, P Chidambaram, and Yashwant Sinha, who presented five budgets in a row.

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