Over a year after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a Rs 17,000-crore package for alleviating the agrarian crisis in 31 districts hit by farmer suicides — in Vidarbha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala — the expert group he set up on rural indebtedness has criticised the implementation of the PM’s package calling for “urgent corrections.”

The key findings of the report, obtained by The Indian Express, authored by the task force headed by Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research director R Radhakrishna:

• No coordination between different agencies implementing the schemes: Credit component being managed by Finance, watershed and rainwater initiatives by NABARD, irrigation by Water Resources Ministry, extension services, seeds by Department of Agriculture, livestock by Departments of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries. Each ministry’s working in isolation.

• No information available on impact of the scheme on people. Need to fix physical targets and introduce monitoring and mid-term evaluation.

• The package (to be implemented until 2008-09) is “universal” in nature not taking into account the fact that causes of distress differ across districts. For instance, in some it’s crop failure; in others, it’s price collapse.

• On extension services, Karnataka’s performance poor. Extension services have a pivotal role in distress but are not the priority when it comes to budgeting.

• On financial targets, most states fall far short. On waiver of interest, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra exceeded targets but Kerala achieved only 54% of the target. On loan rescheduling, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra exceeded targets but Kerala achieved only 43%. Again, on fresh loan disbursements, Kerala and Maharashtra exceeded targets but the other two states could only meet two-thirds of their targets.

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