Tamil Nadu agri budget focuses on schemes to withstand impact of climate crisis

With climate change expected to impact 29 districts, Tamil Nadu minister MRK Panneerselvam announced a slew of measures including alternate crops that can withstand its impact and crop diversification while presenting the first full-fledged agriculture Budget on Saturday.

A separate agriculture budget was presented last August, a day after the main budget. This system was followed this year, too, as the new Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government said that agriculture entailed a special focus. Out of the 86 announcements made in the agriculture budget last year, government orders have been issued for 80, and the schemes are in various stages of implementation, said the minister.

For the remaining six announcements that are long-term in nature, detailed guidelines are being formulated with components and estimates. A government order has also been issued for establishing a food processing and agro-export promotion corporation, and preliminary works have been initiated. The Budget has been prepared following consultations with farmers, academicians and scientists, the minister added.

Due to its geographical location, the impact of global climate change is largely felt in Tamil Nadu. As per the Sixth Assessment Report (report released by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) 29 districts, including are identified as vulnerable to climate change.

“While it may not be possible to completely mitigate the effects of climate change immediately, preference will be given for executing plans towards increasing the adaptability to climate change,” the minister said in the assembly.

The government is also encouraging crop diversification. Special schemes will be implemented to popularise the cultivation of millets and pulses as an alternative to water-intensive crops. Global warming leads to a rise in temperature, which in turn adversely impacts water resources.

Schemes for establishing suitable water harvesting structures and groundwater recharge systems have been introduced in the agriculture budget to increase production in a dry land. The government has aimed to achieve 126 lakh MT of food grains production in 2022-23.

Tree cultivation is also being encouraged to withstand climate change, which the government believed would provide good returns to farmers in future “like a fixed deposit”.

During 2022-23, high-value tree seedlings such as a red sander, sandal, mahogany, teak will be distributed to farmers at subsidy at an estimated budget outlay of ₹12 crores to encourage agroforestry.

Due to climate change, there have been many sudden outbreaks of pests and diseases in recent years. Hence, to contain the outbreaks immediately after the incident, a special fund will be created at an initial outlay of ₹5 crore for this fiscal year, Pannerselvam said.

The agriculture and farmers’ welfare department will also provide ₹5,175.56 crore to (The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited–electrical power generation and distribution public sector undertaking) for providing free electricity to farmers this year.

The general budget presented by finance minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Friday had also focussed on the impact of climate change, besides increasing employability, investments in the state, women‘s education, health, economic development and ensuring that welfare measures reach beneficiaries through data governance was the focus of the budget.

Cultivation for tomatoes, organic produces

As announced in the last year’s interim budget, the state has initiated the establishment of the Nammazhvar Organic Farming Research Institute to encourage those interested in organic farming. The Tamil Nadu Organic Farming Mission will be implemented as two clusters within each district by creating awareness on cultivation practices through special training, information on soil health, advice on bio-fertilizer production units, and registering with the Organic Certification Department with an outlay of ₹30 crore.

Given the fluctuating price of tomatoes which was one of the highly-priced plants last year due to the monsoon and seasonal variations, the budget announced the promotion of off-season Tomato cultivation to regulate prices. “Tomato price fluctuations affect the economy of the farmers to a larger extent,” the minister said.

Digital routes to help farmers

The budget also announced several digital measures for the ease of farmers; notably, online services in horticulture. E-commerce facilitates the marketing of horticulture products directly to the consumers without any intermediaries. The produce of farmers, Farmers Interest Group (FIG), Farmers Producer Group (FPG) and planting materials, seeds, inputs, spice crops such as Cardamom, Pepper, Cinnamon, Clove and value-added products such as Jam, Jelly, Pickle, Dry fruits, Eucalyptus oil produced by state horticulture farms will be marketed online.

Three storage depots will be established in Chennai, Madurai and Coimbatore with ₹1.50 crore for sorting, grading and packing of the produces. The products will be distributed to customers through online distribution companies and the scheme has been allotted ₹2-crore.

Farmers’ market locally called Uzhavar Sandhai in Tamil is where farmers sell their fruits and vegetables directly to consumers without any intermediaries. 180 farmers’ markets are functioning in Tamil Nadu. As announced in last year’s agriculture budget, 50 more markets will be renovated this year with the provision of facilities like computers, information technology equipment, electronic price display

board and public address system with an outlay of ₹15 crore from Union and state government funds.

Experts said that though there are a few misses on the whole the budget is welcome particularly for announcing schemes aimed at SC/ST farmers and agriculture labourers. “Giving them this recognition makes agriculture labourers equal to farmers,” said R Gopinath, senior scientist, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF).

“Promotion of small millets and diversification of crops are all very much related to climate change. There is also an emphasis on organic farming which is in alignment with the Government of India. If you observe the union agriculture department’s demands for grants, they have shifted to organic farming oriented allocations. But the concern is marketing. I feel if they want to push small millet production, the current marketing facility (sold at farmers’ markets in the evenings) is not enough because the open market is not stable. Small millets require an assured market. One way is including small millets in school feeding programmes and all government-supported feeding programmes.”