Despite the UPA-II’s pronounced thrust on agriculture, the sector seems to be suffering from a paucity of funds. So much so that the agriculture ministry has reminded the Planning Commission that the first three years of the Plan have failed to give the agreed importance to the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) with an allocation of less than 33 per cent of the total funds earmarked for the 11th Plan period.

The ministry is understood to have intensified its pitch for seeking the funds after reports suggested that the Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) for the next Budget would be marginally higher. In a recent letter to the ministries, the plan panel pointed out that there was an express need to utilise resources in the “most judicious and efficient manner by prioritising Plan schemes” in the next Budget. The panel also asked the ministries to ensure well-defined quarterly measurable and monitorable targets for improving the efficiency of budgetary allocations.

Making out a case for paying more attention to the RKVY, the ministry has argued that in the remaining two years the government should increase allocation to the scheme by at least 100 per cent if the scheme is to deliver its intended objective. Accordingly, the allocation in the next fiscal has to be at least Rs 8,000 crore against an expected expenditure of Rs 4,000 crore this year, the ministry headed by Sharad Pawar pointed out. The total outlay for the programme was Rs 25,000 crore for the entire Plan period, of which Rs 8,136.60 crore has been allotted so far with an objective to make the remaining money available in the rest of the Plan period. So if Rs 8,000 crore is made available for the next fiscal the remaining money will have to be made available in 2011-12.

... contd.