Taking a U-turn from its earlier assessment that conceded the adverse affects of demonetisation on farmers, the Union agriculture ministry in a fresh report submitted on Tuesday 27 November, claimed that there was no 'adverse impact' on the agriculture sector due to demonetisation, The Hindu reported.
Speaking to the national daily, Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal said that the previous report had a “compilation error” and a show-cause notice has been sent to two Directors and a joint secretary over this “error”.
Agarwal further said that the old report is being withdrawn by the government adding that it was not vetted by him as at the time of its submission, Agarwal was on an overseas tour.
Earlier, the report submitted by the Union Agriculture Ministry to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance on 20 November stated that millions of farmers were badly affected during demonetisation, as they were unable to buy seeds and fertilisers for their winter crops.
WHAT ELSE DID THE OLD REPORT CLAIM?
The previous report stated that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation in India, farmers were in between selling their Kharif crops or sowing the Rabi crops – activities which require a significant amount of cash.
“Millions of farmers were unable to get enough cash to buy seeds and fertilisers for their winter crops. Even bigger landlords faced a problem, such as paying daily wages to the farmers and purchasing agriculture needs for growing crops,” the old report stated.
It also claimed that the effects of demonetisation was borne by National Seeds Corporation (NSC) – a government organisation which failed to sell nearly 1.38 lakh quintals of wheat seeds as a result of it.
WHAT DOES THE FRESH REPORT CLAIM?
The fresh report submitted by the ministry claims that careful strategies were adopted by the government to ensure availability of credit for the farmers to buy seeds. It also stated that there has been a steady growth in the production of Rabi crops since 2016.
The report even added that there was a dip in area sown from 635.29 lakh hectare to 628 lakh hectare in 2017-18, however, not at the time demonetisation was announced on 8 November 2016.
An official told IANS that the earlier report was based on the statement of the Chairman of the National Seeds Corporation did not take into account seed distribution by various other channels.
They said the higher farm output in 2016-17 and 2017-18 showed that demonetisation did not hurt farmers.
WHAT WAS THE IMPACT OF THIS REPORT?
At the time the previous report of the Agriculture Ministry was submitted on 20 November, Congress MP Veerappa Moily, who heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee, had asked the officials from the Agriculture Ministry to come back later, as the Secretary of Agriculture was absent at the meeting.
Following the submission of the fresh report, Moily and other members pulled up the ministry for submitting diametrically opposite reports, The Hindu reported.
“It is very unusual for the ministry to replace a report it has submitted. It looks like there was pressure from certain quarters on the ministry.”Veerappa Moily
(With inputs from The Hindu and IANS)
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