Small and marginal farmers have raised the demand for special allocation for organic farming and ecological fertilisation in the forthcoming budget, which finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will present on March 16. According to them, chemical fertilisers, the subsidy for which is likely to touch Rs 1 lakh crore in 2011-12,  are not benefitting the soil and are burdening them with high-cost cultivation instead.

“The government is yet to do something in support of ecological fertilisers and the finance ministry should make something concrete in the forthcoming budget,” said Avaniash Kakade, kisan adhikar abhiyan of Wardha. “Ecological fertilisers are hardly receiving any support from the government,” he added.
Representatives of the small and marginal farmers from across the country were in the capital as part of an initiative by Greenpeace India where they presented their charter of demands to the finance ministry.

“The rainfed farmers who form majority, have no benefits from this huge investment as they can hardly use any chemical fertilisers due to non-availability of water during most of the year,” they wrote in a letter to Mukherjee. 

“Neither the farmer nor the government is benefiting from the present subsidy system,” said Saroj Mohanty, paschim krishak sanghatan samanvay samiti, a conglomeration of 32 grassroots-level farmers in Odisha. In response to their demands, the farmers said, they were yet to hear from the north block.

The Greenpeace India has also held that the central schemes are highly skewed towards chemical fertilisers and there is hardly any support for ecological fertilisation. “It is an irony that even after acknowledging the crisis, the government continues to mindlessly invest in chemical fertilisers,” said Gopikrishna SR, Greenpeace India campaigner on sustainable agriculture.

The small farmers said that government has not provided any support system in the last one year to ecological fertilisers despite finance minister saying in his budget speech: “The government proposes to promote organic farming methods, combining modern technology with traditional farming practices like green manuring.” 

The Greenpeace India had alleged that the nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) policy launched in April 2010 only supports chemical fertilisers. The centre for budget and government accountability (CBGA), a Delhi-based think tank, has also put forwarded charter of demands in agriculture sector in forthcoming budget. These are:
•         Budget allocation for indigenous seeds production must be devolved to panchayats
•         More funds should be given for micro, small and medium irrigations
•         Increased allocation for extension services for agriculture which should reach to small and marginal farmers
•         Agriculture mandis in all districts for farmers coming from remote areas
•         The government needs to step up the budgetary provisions for agriculture research and education in the country