With no announcements of new sops and budgetary allocation, experts feel the government was merely presenting a statement of facts of the last five years.

Expert Dr Budhajirao Malik calls it an “agricultural account of the UPA government” with a lot of error in facts. He points out that the interim budget announced that the total debt waiver for the farmers so far amounted up to Rs 65,300 crore covering 3.6 crore farmers while the budget last year clearly mentioned that it was a Rs 71,000 crore waiver and covered nearly 80 per cent of farmers in the country rather than the present 30 per cent. He said that the budget merely mentioned that the annual growth rate was 3.7 without assessing whether the policies announced reached the beneficiary. Mere announcement of schemes does not mean that the government was focusing on the agri sector,’’ he said.

Malik, who has studied the plan allocation over the last five years, also observes that it is erroneously mentioned that the plan allocation for agriculture increased by 300 per cent. “How did the government derive this figure when the actual implementation is just 3.5-5 per cent?’’ he questions. The UPA government’s 7 per cent interest per annum for short term crop loans is not very beneficial for the poor farmers who do not stand to benefit from the scheme. “The poor farmer never gets covered under these schemes,’’he said.

Activist and agricultural expert Mukund Ghare, working in the area of natural resources, calls the UPA government’s five-year focus on agriculture a farce.

He further adds, “Basic requirements like drinking water has been ignored all along. Showing huge amounts being disbursed for the agricultural sector does not necessarily mean good production.”