No unique schemes for farm sector

The Budget has failed to focus on the farm activities on the fringes of urban areas, an important strategy in taming food inflation, renowned agricultural scientist MS Swaminathan has said.

“Reform is needed in peri-urban agriculture since it can solve problems in containing the prices of tomato and onion,” Swaminathan told DH, pointing out that the crucial farm strategy has been conspicuously missing from the attention of successive finance ministers.

The agricultural scientist said Jaitley has also failed to consider the impact of climate change on farming. “A lot of problems in the agriculture sector are due to floods and droughts caused by climate change,” Swaminathan said, adding focus should also be on providing convenient loans to women farmers to encourage participation.

Right to Food campaigner Dipa Sinha dubbed the Budget a “continuation of disappointments”, especially for women and child welfare. “There is focus on maternity benefit, which is good, but the funds allocated for it will not be sufficient for its universal applicability,” she said.  She was surprised that the finance minister chose to give malnutrition a pass, particularly after it was sharply brought to focus recently with several tragic deaths in Maharashtra.