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Can Bommai double farmers' income by year-end? K'taka Assembly debates
The Bommai-led government has allocated around Rs. 16,000 crores for farmer loans, which now covers 33 lakh local farmers, up from the 22 lakh farmers before. Bommai also increased the allocation for agriculture and allied sectors to Rs. 33,700 crore, which is the highest allocation the sector has seen in the past four years.
Five years since the central government promised to double farmers' income by 2022, it has only seen a 'marginal rise'.
Karnataka CM Bommai has allocated around Rs. 16,000 crores for farmer loans, which now covers 33 lakh, local farmers, up from the 22 lakh farmers before.
Bandeppa Kashempur, a member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from the JDS, however, asked the government to increase the coverage to at least 45 lakh farmers, considering there are about 80 lakh farmers in the state.
“How will the farmer's income double if the loan allocation covers less than half the farmer population in the state?” he asked in the assembly on Wednesday.
Bandeppa further said farmers in rural areas get around seven hours of electricity a day on average and asked the ruling party to double this to 14 hours, considering the state has turned around from buying to selling surplus electricity.
The local government is also supposed to compensate farmers for crop loss in the flood and drought struck regions in northern Karnataka.
Farmers around the Raichur district rely on rainwater as the natural source for irrigation. However, in the absence of rainfall, many have reported that the villagers abandon their farms and migrate to Bangalore for other employment opportunities.
Sharanappa from Benaknal village said, “Without compensations or job opportunities, many are forced to leave their hometowns and migrate to cities for temporary jobs in construction and labour.”
In one such village in Raichur district, called Maraldinni, a dam was built under the Maski Nala Yojana, but water from the dam is full of silt and other impurities.
Despite the building of canals and borewells in these villages, water is proving to be a shortage. Rain is also said to be inconsistent and unreliable in some taluks, causing farmers' yield to half.
On the brighter side, the state government is implementing secondary agriculture methods, which focuses on farmer education and drawing income from not only agriculture, but sericulture, animal husbandry and poultry farming as well.
