MGNREGA to help improve agriculture productivity

Ramesh rejects Pawar's call to ban job scheme during farm season.

Updated on: Dec 22, 2011, 21:33:29 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar’s suggestion to ban Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) during farming season may not get government’s approval.

Instead, the MGNREGA guidelines may be amended to increasing synergy between the world’s biggest social security scheme and agriculture sector to improve production. A set of green methodologies could be included in works allowed under the scheme.

Pawar had written to Prime Minister on November 28 seeking the ban. PM Manmohan Singh sought comments of rural development minister Jairam Ramesh.

The minister, in his reply to PM, has relied on Planning Commission member Mihir Shah’s suggestions on improving synergy to say that MGNREGA can lead to improvement in agriculture productivity and Pawar’s demand was violative of MGNREGA Act.

The law is based on the principle of providing work on demand. So, if during the agriculture season there is no demand, no work could be provided.

Ramesh had constituted a committee under Shah to revise MGNREGA guidelines to allow the largest number of works which will help strengthen the synergy between MGNREGA and agriculture without compromising on fundamental features of the Act.

Shah committee had submitted a list of 11 types of new works that can be included in MGNREGA to improve production in addition to existing seven. The new blue-print on allowing job under MGNREGA saying works such as soil conservation, enriched compost production through bio-waste recycling, vermin-compost and vermin-wash should be allowed.

It also talks about allowing production of liquid manures and decentralized production of bio-pesticides such as neem kernel extract or other neem based extractions. Adding another green aspect to agriculture through MGNREGA includes afforestation on common and individual lands and construction of night shelter for poultry, birds and small ruminants.

The list also allowing works that can reduce damage of agriculture produce and provide better facilities for animals used in agriculture sector.

“MGNREGA is contributing to raising income of farmers through improved agriculture productivity, and also reducing the need for small and marginal farmers to continue to work on MGNREGA sites,” Ramesh told the PM, in his letter.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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