TN budget 2012 reaction

There has been a good budget, looks like in TN this year. There has been a high allocation for agri!
While it is good to note that there has been a greater allocation for agriculture, thrust on sustainable farming (both ecologically and economically) would have helped.
see here!

That quote of mine about lack of anything organic is just one (big) lacuna in this budget..
there are others:
1/ The most strikingly absent feature is the Organic Mission fro the state. while many are states are announcing themselves to be going organic and releasing an organic mission for the state and announcing many proactive organic policies and programs to take the organic movement forward, it is sad that TN which has many pioneer organic farmers is missing the opportunity to lead from the front. This is especially important in today's scenario- on health as well as the fertilizer shortage/subsidy removal condition.

2/ The very talk of second Green revolution is very dangerous. It is well known fact that Green revolution focused only and 2 grains- rice and wheat and hence lost out in long term. Today most of the ills of farmers and farming (esp for the small and marginal ones) is due to the green revolution. The ecological impact too has been heavy because of GR. The much hyped 2nd GR in the east is already receiving flak in the eastern states of West Bengal, orissa, Assam etc and is being questioned and derided heavily.

3/ The agri Insurance is a very good and much needed scheme and increasing its coverage is great. But there are lots of issues on the ground level esp very operational and functional issues. These will have to be addressed to reap the benefit. So awareness programs as well as understanding the exact needs of the farmers needs to be planned. May be state level workshop with farmers, farmer leaders, civil society members, agri dept members and insurance experts need to converge. (SFA intends organising one such workshop)

4/ SRI- System of Rice Intensification is a good news. Hope it is taken up the organic way like in most other states in India. (actually SRI has grown beyond rice and shud be ideally called Syatem of roots Intensification)

5/ SPI- of pulses is also a welcome move.

6/ Marketing and storage facilities needs more attention and allocation. More plans should be around implementing them at block level.

7/ It is indeed welcome to see the mention about rehabilitation of tanks. If implemented, this would have been one of the greatest outcomes in this budget, considering the water crisis in the coming days.

8/ we should learn from the Cuba example. when in the 80s, US backed embargo was imposed, suddenly they were left without chemical fertilisers..and in crisis the country acted very boldly and prudently and went the sustainable, traditional and organic ways. Today it is the only 100% organic country in the world. needless to state that they are the most healthy society in the world - leading both in health and health care indices.