Budget offers no solution to food inflation: Abhijit Sen

Former Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen has said the first Budget of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has failed to address high food inflation.

Addressing a seminar on Analysing the Budget 2014 for Rural India, Sen said this year's Budget did not say much about reducing fertiliser subsidy, which encourages indiscriminate use of fertilisers, resulting in massive distortion to the biological composition of soil. "Instead, the subsidy on fertiliser has been increased," said Sen.

The NDA government in its maiden Budget under the prime ministership of Narendra Modi had made a slew of announcements for revitalising the agriculture sector. However, experts feel much will depend on how the announcements are implemented in the next few years and what direction it gives to Indian agriculture.
 

Former agriculture secretary J L N Srivastava said the monsoon is the real agriculture minister, as it determines the course of farming.

However, the Budget does little to chalk out long-term strategy to deal with low rainfall, other than an integrated watershed management programme, the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sinchaee Yojana and the "Neeranchal" programme, which are good ideas.