The Budget And Us.

(From Business Today (India))

Byline: E. Kumar Sharma, Priya Srinivasan, Sahad P.V., Venkatesha Babu

PANKERLA ANJIAH/39

Marginal Farmer

Television has reached Pratap Singhram village on the outskirts of Hyderabad-it did that several years ago, actually-but Pankerla Anjiah, who has taken five acres of land on long lease didn't get to catch the Finance Minister on television. Anjiah, a father of four who grows paddy on three acres and cash crops such as chillies, cotton, and vegetables on the other two, begins his day at 4.30 a.m., milks the few buffaloes he owns, does his rounds distributing milk, and then works his land; it's hard work earning a living from land that is, like most in the Telengana region, rain-fed, and the earliest each day ends is 8.30 p.m.. "It is good that the government wants to increase agricultural credit," he says when told of the Budget's green slant, "but there must be a mechanism whereby small farmers who have leased out land are eligible for loans." Anjiah is, however, unequivocally positive about the government's intent to renovate water bodies as that could help rain-fed, un-irrigated land like his own. In sharp contrast to Anjiah's good-but... response is that of P. Chengal Reddy, the Chairman of the Federation of Farmer's Associations in Andhra Pradesh, who spoke to this correspondent while being driven to a TV studio in Delhi. "The Prime Minister and the Finance Minister seem to have realised that a strong agricultural sector and a healthy farming community is critical for the economy." Reddy is obviously more sanguine than Anjiah about the Budget's ability to change the lives of marginal farmers.

-E. Kumar Sharma

VASUKI SUNDARAM/38