Agriculture Gets High Focus in Union Budget

Proposals Include New Agri Universities, Soil Health Card to Every Farmer, Kisan TV Channel and Raising of Farm Credit Target to Rs. 8 Lakh crore

The union budget presented by Shri Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance, yesterday has a number of proposals relating to agriculture. The major proposals are as follows: EXPANSION OF EDUCATIONAL AND R&D INFRASTRUCTURE Government will establish two institutions of excellence in Assam and Jharkhand with an initial sum of `100 crore in the current financial year. In addition, an amount of Rs.100 crores is being set aside for setting up an “Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund”. It is also proposed to establish Agriculture Universities in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and Horticulture Universities in Telangana and Haryana. An initial sum of Rs.200 crores has been allocated for this purpose. SOIL HEALTH Deteriorating soil health has been a cause of concern and leads to sub optimal utilization of farming resources. Government will initiate a scheme to provide to every farmer a soil health card in a Mission mode. A sum of Rs.100 crore has been kept for this purpose and an additional Rs.56 crores to set up 100 Mobile Soil Testing Laboratories across the country. MEASURES TO HELP FARMERS IN GETTING CREDIT AND REMUNERATIVE PRICES As a very large number of landless farmers are unable to provide land title as guarantee, institutional finance is denied to them and they become vulnerable to money lenders’ usurious lending. The Finance Minister has proposed to provide finance to 5 lakh joint farming groups of “Bhoomi Heen Kisan” through NABARD in the current financial year. Price volatility in the agriculture produce creates uncertainties and hardship for the farmers. To mitigate this a sum of Rs.500 crore has been provided for establishing a Price Stabilization Fund. The farmers and consumers’ interest will be further served by increasing competition and integrating markets across the country. To accelerate setting up of a National Market, the Central Government will work closely with the State Governments to re-orient their respective APMC Acts., to provide for establishment of private market yards/ private markets. The state governments will also be encouraged to develop Farmers’ Markets in town areas to enable the farmers to sell their produce directly. The issue of profitability of small holding based agriculture has assumed importance in view of increasing proportion of small and marginal farmers in the country. I propose to supplement NABARD’s Producers’ organization development fund for Producer’s development and upliftment called PRODUCE with a sum of Rs.200 crore which will be utilized for building 2,000 producers organizations across the country over the next two years. IMPARTING GROWTH AND SUSTAINABILITY The Finance Minister said, we are committed to sustaining a growth of 4% in Agriculture and for this we will bring technology driven second green revolution with focus on higher productivity and include “Protein revolution” as an area of major focus. Climate change is a reality which all of us have to face together. Agriculture as an activity is most prone to the vagaries of climate change. To meet this challenge, a “National Adaptation Fund” for climate change will be established. As an initial sum an amount of `100 crore will be transferred to the Fund. North Eastern Region of India has tremendous potential for development of organic farming. With a growing global demand for organic food, people living in the NE states can reap rich harvest from development of commercial organic farming. To facilitate this, the budget  provides a sum of Rs.100 crore for this purpose in the current financial year. FARM CREDIT Banks are providing strong credit support to the agriculture sector. A target of Rs.8 lakh crore has been set for agriculture credit during 2014-15. Under the Interest Subvention Scheme for short term crop loans, the banks are extending loans to farmers at a concessional rate of 7%. The farmers get a further incentive of 3% for timely repayment. This scheme will continue in 2014-15. The share of long term investment credit in agriculture is going down as compared to short term crop loan. This is severely hampering the asset creation in agriculture and allied activities. In order to give a boost to long term investment credit in agriculture, the budget provides for setting up “Long Term Rural Credit Fund” in NABARD for the purpose of providing refinance support to Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks with an initial corpus of Rs.5,000 crore. The Short Term Cooperative Rural Credit (STCRC) – Refinance Fund was announced in Union Budget 2008-09 with initial corpus of Rs.5,000 crore. In order to ensure increased and uninterrupted credit flow to farmers and to avoid high cost market borrowings by NABARD, an amount of `50,000 crore has been provided for STCRC Fund during 2014-15. DEVELOPMENT OF INDIGENOUS CATTLE BREEDS A sum of Rs.50 crores for the development of indigenous cattle breeds and an equal amount for starting a blue revolution in inland fisheries. BUILDING RURAL AND AGRICULTURAL  INFRASTRUCTURE NABARD operates the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), out of the priority sector lending shortfall of the banks, which helps in creation of infrastructure in agriculture and rural sectors across the country. The budget provides for raising the corpus of RIDF by an additional Rs.5,000 crores from the target given in the Interim Budget to Rs.25,000 crores in the current financial year. Increasing warehousing capacity for increasing the shelf life of agriculture produces and thereby the earning capacity of the farmers is of utmost importance. Keeping in view the urgent need for availability of scientific warehousing infrastructure in the country, I propose an allocation of Rs.5,000 crore for the fund for the year 2014-15. KISAN TV Kisan TV, dedicated to the interests of the agriculture and allied sector will be launched in the current financial year. This will disseminate real time information to the farmers information regarding new farming techniques, water conservation, organic farming etc. A sum of Rs.100 crore has been kept for this purpose. OTHER BUDGET MEASURES WITH BEARING ON AGRICULTURE The nascent agri-biotech cluster in Mohali will be scaled up to include plant-genetic and phenotype platforms. Secondary agriculture will be a major thrust in Mohali through collaborations in the public and private sector. In addition, two new clusters, in Pune and Kolkata will be established. At the request of the Ministry of Agriculture, The Finance Ministry has exempted service tax on loading, unloading, storage, warehousing and transportation of cotton, whether ginned or baled, to bring it on par with certain other agricultural produce. The Finance Minister said, wage employment would be provided under MGNREGA through works that are more productive, asset creating and substantially linked to agriculture and allied activities

Promoting Soil Health and Judicious use of Fertilizers

Soil health needs to be assessed at regular intervals so as to ensure that farmers apply the required amount of nutrients to their crops. Accordingly, distribution of Soil Health Cards is a continuous & dynamic exercise carried out by the State Governments. Central Government provides assistance to State Governments for setting up Soil Testing Laboratories for issuing Soil Health Cards to farmers. State Governments have adopted innovative practices like involvement of agricultural students, NGOs and private sector in soil testing, determining average soil health of villages, etc., to issue Soil Health Cards. Government has taken up Management of Soil Health & Fertility under National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture to promote soil test based balanced and judicious use of fertilizers. The scheme provides assistance for setting up new static/mobile soil testing laboratories (STLs), strengthening of existing STLs, training of STL Staff/ extension officers/ farmers, field demonstrations on balanced use of fertilizers etc. For judicious use of fertilisers, Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) advocates split application and placement of fertilisers, use of slow releasing N-fertilizers and nitrification inhibitors, growing leguminous crops and use of Resource Conservation Technologies. ICAR has developed technologies for preparation of enriched / vermi compost from various organic wastes, developed improved strains of biofertilisers specific to different crops and soil types, and prepared geo-referenced soil fertility maps of 171 districts which are useful in monitoring soil fertility and fertiliser recommendations for balanced nutrient application. Government has launched Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) from 2014-15, wherein a component of integrated area expansion has been included for enabling farmers to take up area expansion activities along with drip irrigation. Assistance is also extended for creation of water resources that is community and individual tanks. Apart from above, ICAR provides technology support for enhancing irrigation efficiency through laser levelling, optimal basin sizes and shift to micro irrigation techniques, optimal irrigation scheduling, augmenting water supplies through rain water harvesting for supplementary irrigation, etc.

Public-Private-Partnership is Encouraged in the National Mission on Agricultural Extension and Technology

The National Mission on Agricultural Extension and Technology (NMAET) which encompasses extension, Information Communication Technology (ICT), Seeds, Agricultural Mechanization and Plant Protection aims to restructure & strengthen agricultural extension to enable delivery of appropriate technology and improved agronomic practices to the farmers through interactive methods of information dissemination, use of ICT, capacity building & institution strengthening; to improve reach of farm mechanization to small and marginal farmers by various means including promotion of custom hiring centers; to make available quality seeds and increase Seed Replacement Ratio and to promote Integrated Pest Management and plant protection measures. Methods of Implementation: Most components of the Mission are implemented through State Governments. However, some regulatory and administrative components like pesticide registration & quarantine regulation; national institutes, Mass Media, Kisan Call Centre & SMS Portal are implemented centrally. Farmers centric extension activities under various Sub-Missions & other Schemes/Programmes are being converged at the level of Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA).                                                                                                                                     Current status of the Mission: Guidelines of various Sub-Missions of NMAET have been issued. Administrative Approval for implementation of the Mission has been issued. Based on the budget provided for NMAET, State-wise allocations have been made in respect of the Centrally sponsored components of the Mission and work on the ground has commenced with effect from April 01,2014 based on Annual Action Plans received from various States/Union Territories.             The Mission will help farmers through integrated approach as various technological components of NMAET viz. seeds, machinery, plant protection are inextricably linked to each other at the field level and these are disseminated among the farmers and other stakeholders through a strong extension network. Besides interactive & direct extension by dedicated personnel and dovetailing manpower support with other programmes, extensive use of ICT is also being promoted in various areas including Short Messaging Service (SMSs), Farmers’ Portal & other web based applications to disseminate timely & relevant information and appropriate technologies.             Public-Private-Partnership is encouraged in the Extension and Training components of the Mission. Genuine and reputed Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), para-extension workers, Farmers Organizations etc. are encouraged to participate and provide extension and training services and guidance to farmers to improve agricultural production and productivity. Besides this input dealers and-agripreneurs are also trained to give advisories to the farmers.

Agriculture and Allied Sector Grew at the Rate 4.7 Per Cent in 2013-14

Agriculture and Allied Sector Grew at the Rate 4.7 Per Cent in 2013-14

Agriculture and allied sector grew at the rate 4.1 per cent against the targeted growth rate of 4.0 per cent during the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012). Further, as per the provisional estimates released by Central Statistics Office (CSO) on 30.05.2014, the sector is estimated to have grown at 4.7 per cent in 2013-14. As per Census conducted by the Registrar General of India, the total number of agricultural workers in the country comprising cultivators and agricultural laborers increased from 234.1 million (127.3 million cultivators and 106.8 million agricultural laborers) in 2001 to 263.1 million (118.8 million cultivators and 144.3 million agricultural laborers) in 2011. The State/ UT-wise, number of agricultural workers are given in Annexure. Government has taken several steps to popularize agriculture by increasing investment, improving farm practices, creating rural infrastructure and ensuring timely delivery of credit, technology and other inputs and providing remunerative prices for farm produce through increased MSPs, higher level of procurement & competitive markets.

“Millennium Development Goals deadline must be met at all costs”

Dr Harsh Vardhan asks doctors to strive for zero child deaths in hospitals

Conscious of the government’s responsibility to reducing the number of maternal and child deaths in accordance with United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG), Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Health Minister, today asked doctors at the capital’s Kalawati Saran Children’s Hospital to be “zero tolerant” to inefficiency and be pro-active in the execution of their duties. “The MDG deadline is September 2015 and we are still a long way off. There are many things you all could do to reduce the mortality rate of children. If developed countries can do it, we too should because there is no paucity of money or human resources,” he told the doctors and staff of the hospital. Dr Harsh Vardhan spent close to two hours inspecting every ward and department of the hospital. He even inspected the toilets and frankly communicated to Dr Atul Murari and departmental heads his views. “There should be TV sets constantly playing health education films in the OPD waiting area. This will make the parents of infants and children aware of how to avoid diarrhoea and other simple diseases and reduce the burden of this hospital,” Dr Harsh Vardhan said. Since 1956, Kalawati Saran Hospital has served as a government facility for tertiary treatment of children. Its present bed strength is 375, but demand is far greater. An expansion programme is under implementation to accommodate 1,000 patients. Dr Harsh Vardhan patiently heard the problems of the different departmental heads. One of them told him that the hospital lacks full time technicians for attending instantly to problems with the equipment. Resultantly they have to rely on the vendors’ technicians who take their own time to arrive. The doctors often have to double up as technicians, which affects their attention to the surge of patients. Another head of department related that apart from treating children suffering from cancer he has to serve as nodal officer for the hospital’s new building project. Dr Harsh Vardhan was accompanied by the Health Secretary, Mr Lov Verma, and the Director General of Health Services, Dr Jagdish Prasad, and senior officials. This was his fourth inspection of a central government hospital in Delhi since assuming office. Earlier the minister had been to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, All India Institute of Medical Sciences and Safdarjung Hospital. The Minister noted inconsistencies in the prescriptions written out by the resident doctors. Turning to Dr Murari, he said, “Senior doctors need to train the juniors on the necessity of rational prescribing of drugs.” Reviewing the infrastructure, Dr Harsh Vardhan said the administration should forward all proposals as soon as possible, and the Ministry would ensure that they are expeditiously cleared. He also assured that the vacant posts of doctors and staff, and the faculty at Lady Hardinge Medical College (which is part of Kalawati Saran Hospital) would be filled up soon. “I will be keen to see improvements in your hospital because it is crucial to our objective of meeting the UN deadline”, Dr Harsh Vardhan said before leaving

Less activism, more research

Since all NGOs are required to be registered within the same set of laws, legally and in public perception, think tanks and the more activist NGOs are often perceived to be the same

The recent Intelligence Bureau report on NGOs has generated a heated debate. The report claims that foreign-funded NGOs’ activism is a threat to internal security as it stalls projects and lowers GDP growth.

While millions of Indian NGOs continue to make contributions in multiple ways, in recent times the mention of an NGO unfortunately brings to mind the image of an activist organisation, which leads protests and is often perceived as obstructing building of coal, hydro and nuclear power plants. Several NGOs, for instance, actively campaigned against coal mining and coal power plants even as Delhi and Uttar Pradesh faced a major electricity crisis. The Kudankulam nuclear plant, built at a cost of nearly Rs. 17,000 crore, could not be commissioned for several months even as Tamil Nadu reeled under power shortage.

Other options?

No doubt, citizens voices must be made to count and they reflect reason based on scientific enquiry. However, it is also important to provide alternative solutions rather than merely protest against public policies. For instance, India needs to increase its electricity generation by at least four times to ensure energy security. A legitimate question therefore to ask is: if we abandon coal, nuclear and even hydro power projects, what are the options to meet our soaring energy demands? Sadly, not many NGOs have offered feasible alternatives based on robust evidence. Raising concerns at construction sites of energy plants is the first step, but it is inadequate for a debate on energy policy.

While the distinction between an ‘activist’ NGO and a ‘think tank’ is not always clear, the latter is an institution with a stronger focus on research. Unfortunately in India, since all NGOs are required to be registered under the same set of laws, legally and in public perception think tanks and the more activist NGOs are often perceived to be the same. The goal of think tanks is to engage in evidence-based policy research in subjects of national importance. With that as basis, they provide pragmatic policy options. Of the over 3 million NGOs, only a handful would qualify as ‘high-quality think tanks.’ The fact that leading international think tanks recently commenced operations in India highlights the relative paucity of good Indian think tanks. The National Planning Commission was envisioned as a think tank to ensure that policymaking was backed by sound analysis and research.

The demand for good-quality evidence for decision-making is increasing because of a growing public scrutiny of government actions and demands for inclusive development. As our Prime Minister recently reminded us, India needs more organisations which can undertake objective, high-quality policy research. Such analyses often use sophisticated, multi-disciplinary tools in economics, mathematics and statistics. For instance, investigations into Game Theory by RAND Corporation, a leading U.S. think tank, led to strengthened mathematical basis and applications of the theory into areas such as auctions, international trade, and even war scenarios. The question then is: why has the supply of think tanks not matched the demand for good-quality information and analyses?

A major part of the answer lies in the quantum and nature of funding that is available to NGOs, including think tanks, and the related concerns around international funding. It’s a fact that several NGOs obtain funding from international sources. This inevitably causes public perceptions about the “motivations” and presence of a “foreign agenda.” However, it is important to distinguish source from influence — foreign funding by itself doesn’t imply the presence of an agenda. As a starter, the largest recipient of foreign funding is the government itself — from multilateral and bilateral sources — and yet the government can remain sovereign. As for NGOs, the funding received by them amounts to just about 0.5 per cent of the Government of India’s budget and 0.1 per cent of India’s GDP. It would be preposterous to believe that this paltry level of funding would influence India’s policy agenda. Moreover, it is wrong to assume that all foreign funding is “bad.” Some of the top institutions in this country have been set up using seed funding from foreign donors. For instance, the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation played an important role in heralding India’s Green Revolution. The multi-donor Think Tank Initiative (TTI) programme managed by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is a unique and bold experiment, which provides long-term, core and unrestricted support to 16 South Asian think tanks (including nine in India) to strengthen policy research.

 It would be preposterous to believe that the funding received by NGOs, which amounts to 0.1. per cent of GDP, would influence India’s policy agenda 

The bigger question then is: why are Indian think tanks forced to seek funding from foreign sources? The simple answer is that they find it difficult to raise the desired support both from government and domestic corporate philanthropy. The government is the main customer of knowledge-based products from think tanks. There is ample evidence to demonstrate that the government is increasingly finding great value in research from good think tanks, especially in developing analytical models, data collection and analysis, and often puts it to good use through public policy announcements. However, government funding is severely constrained by rules and regulations and is inadequate to cover the total cost of undertaking high-quality research. It also has a high transaction cost, which think tanks are often unable to bear. On the other hand, corporates seem to prefer supporting direct intervention causes such as poverty, education, health and gender, which have tangible impact. They often don’t seem very comfortable in supporting think tanks, perhaps because the outputs are less tangible and have impacts only in the long run. As a result, think tanks are forced to rely on international funding. But that dependence has not necessarily led to foreign influence. In fact, especially in the case of core funding support, such as that provided through the TTI, such funding has fundamentally strengthened autonomy, operational and research capabilities in think tanks and has enabled them to be on the path of institutional sustainability.

A deeper malaise

Public concerns and government anxiety with foreign funding is therefore at best a symptom of a larger and deeper malaise that has structural roots. The government must begin to invest in building knowledge and research institutions significantly more than they have done in recent decades. And building institutions requires a bold rethink. As the Prime Minister has rightly said recently, the country does need outstanding think tanks, which can strengthen government hands for better-informed public policies. However, the government needs to come forward and invest long-term in think tanks. Building world-class institutions requires a consistent, systematic support to a research infrastructure as much as venture capital investment in think tanks. Can India create a national or regional venture capital/entrepreneurship fund to invest long-term and build home-grown global think tanks? The TTI model could be a useful guide.

Let’s therefore turn the question on its head. If foreign foundations can generously support select think tanks, isn’t it time for our own government and corporates to do the same? The IB would have at least one less report to write

World's most advanced dengue vaccine shows promise in phase 3 trial

The first dengue vaccine candidate (CYD-TDV) to reach phase 3 clinical testing has shown moderate protection (56%) against the disease in Asian children, according to new research published in The Lancet.

Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease that infects around 390 million people each year, of whom about 96 million suffer from symptomatic infection. WHO estimates that the global burden of dengue has risen 30-fold over the past 50 years, with over half of the world's population at risk of the disease.

There is no licensed vaccine available to treat or prevent dengue fever, and efforts to develop one have been complicated by the fact that dengue is caused by four distinct dengue viruses, and a vaccine must target all four serotypes (DENV 1–4).

This phase 3 trial took place in dengue-endemic areas across five countries in Asia, a region that accounts for over 70% of the global dengue burden. The study involved 10 275 healthy children aged 2 to 14 years who were randomly assigned to receive three injections of the CYD-TDV vaccine (6851) or a placebo (3424) at 0, 6, and 12 months, and followed for up to 2 years.

The researchers recorded 250 dengue cases more than 28 days after the third injection—117 in the vaccine group and 133 in the placebo group, demonstrating an overall protective efficacy of 56.5%.

The vaccine also showed 88.5% efficacy after 3 doses against severe disease (dengue haemorrhagic fever) which leads to hospitalisation for over half a million people (mostly children) every year, and 67% against dengue-associated hospitalisation.

The researchers found that the vaccine gave low protection (35%) against DENV 2, but more than 75% protection against DENV 3 and 4, and 50% against DENV 1.

The vaccine was generally well tolerated. A total of 647 serious adverse events were reported, 402 (62%) in the vaccine group and 245 (38%) in the placebo group.

According to lead author Dr Maria Rosario Capeding from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in the Philippines, "Our results suggest that vaccination with CYD-TDV can reduce the incidence of symptomatic dengue infection by more than half and importantly reduced severe disease and hospitalisations. This candidate vaccine has the potential to have a significant impact on public health in view of the high disease burden in endemic countries."*

Writing in a linked Comment, Professor Annelies Wilder-Smith from Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore says, "Perhaps the most interesting finding of this trial was that efficacy after at least one dose was almost as high as that after three doses…Because three doses 6 months apart is an inconvenient and costly immunisation schedule for scale up in national programmes, the question of whether sufficient efficacy can be achieved with a lower number of doses deserves further assessment."

She adds, "With an estimated 96 million clinically apparent dengue infections annually, a reduction by half would present a significant public health benefit that would support dengue vaccine introduction….Whether the armamentarium of alternative vaccine candidates presently in the pipeline (including inactivated, live attenuated, chimeric, recombinant, subunit and DNA vaccines) will improve efficacy beyond 56% remains to be established. For the moment, the CYD-TDV vaccine is the best we have; however, with 56% efficacy it will never be a single solution. Continued support for the development of other novel strategies including drugs, improved case management, insecticides, and new approaches to vector control, is needed before effective dengue control becomes a credible prospect."