 bill no 277 of  2017 the payment of agricultural inputs grants bill, 2017 byshri vinod kumar boianapalli, mp a billto provide for payment of non-returnable grants to the farmers for meeting the input costs in agriculture with a view to promote increased agricultural output and decreased farmer credit and for matters connected therewithbe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-eighth year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the payment of agricultural inputs grants act, 2017short title, extent and commencement(2) it extends to the whole of indiaapplication of the act2 it shall apply to each and every farmer engaged in agricultural activities in thecountry but shall not apply to persons engaged in dairy, piscine, horticultural and any other non-commercial practices which do not require the use of common agricultural inputs like fertilizers, machinery, labour or land to yield commercial outputdefinitions53 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a) "agricultural inputs" includes soil, fertiliser, machinery, tools and otherequipments and substances used in the process of agriculture by the farmers to produce a favourable yield;10(b) "grant" means a non-returnable payment made by the central governmentand the state government to the farmer directly for the purpose of meeting the cost of agricultural inputs; and(c) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this actpayment of grants to farmers154 (1) the central government and the state government concerned, shall ensurepayment of grant to each and every farmer to whom this act applies for the purpose of meeting the cost of agricultural inputs(2) the grants under sub-section (1) shall be shared by the central government andthe state government concerned in equal ratio20(3) the grants shall be determined each year in advance by including it in the annual financial statement after taking into consideration the forseeable factors like monsoon, drought, floods and crop diseases which affect agricultural output(4) the amount of grant to be paid to a farmer shall be determined on the basis of his land holding(5) the grants shall be paid twice in a year, one before the rabi season crop is sown and second before the kharif crop is sown25(6) the grants shall be credited to the bank account or krishi account or such otheraccount of the farmer as may be prescribed:provided that every grant paid to a farmer shall be credited to an account which is linked with the aadhaar number of the farmer to ensure transparency and efficiency of payment30maintenance of record of land holdings of farmers in every district5 (1) for the purposes of making payment of grants under this act, the centralgovernment and the concerned state government shall maintain records of land holdings of the farmers in every district and where such records are not available, the central government and the state government concerned shall expeditiously carry out land surveys to find out the land holdings of farmers in such districts35(2) for the purpose of recording, maintaining and updating the data under sub-section (1), the central government and the state government concerned may take assistance of local village committees or such other bodies as may be prescribed(3) the data under sub-section (1) shall comprise land holding size, crops sown, common agricultural practices applied, annual yields and such other information as may be necessary to streamline application of this act40power to make rules6 (1) the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of this act(2) in particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power; such rules may provide for —45(a) the preparation and maintenance of records and other data pertaining to land holding;(b) the use of technology and other means to collect such data, (c) the nature of payments made, in the form of direct benefit transfers, in theform of credit to accounts, cash coupons, or other methods as it may deem fit,5(d) the minimum requirements to make eligible a farmer to receive benefits underthis act,(e) the amount to be paid as part of the benefits under this act to farmers eachyear, by way of notification in the official gazette10 15(3) every rule made under this act by the central government shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made, before each house of parliament, while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both the houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule statement  of  objects  and  reasonsin the current fiscal year 2017-2018, the union government has allocated rupees seventy thousand crores solely for the purpose of subsidising fertilisers this excludes the sum of farm loan waivers that are given out by state governments that also run into tens of thousands of crores the plight of farmers in the country as well as the entire agricultural industry is bleak due to the high dependence on monsoons which are irregular and uncertain the cycle of handing out farm loan waivers arises every few years and fails to address the problem at its roots the practice of the government waiving farm loans also damages the credit outlook as well, since some farmers anticipate such waivers and intentionally choose not to pay off their debtsrather than these repetitive temporary fixes every few years, the government needs to pay heed to the needs of the farmers so that such situation of a farm loan waiver does not arise altogether farmers also remain at the mercy of local money-lenders who are not institutionalised and charge exorbitant rates of interests from farmers which are hard to repay despite a favourable yield subsequently, farmers take loans to pay off previous loans, thus resulting in a debt trap this can be done by channelling funds to the farmers to provide for their input costs providing input costs to farmers in the form of a grant can help to ensure that farmers do not fall victim to the vicious cycle of a debt trap the government can pay for the input costs of the farmers as grants credited directly to their accounts such amount can be paid as a biannual grant, one for the kharif season and one for the rabi season this grant if paid on a per acre basis limited by the maximum allowable land holding size as per existing applicable laws, it will not incur debt on his input costs in case the farmer is faced with adversities such as irregular monsoons, droughts, floods, etc the farmer will not have any burden to repay any debts and will also save them from harassment at the hands of moneylendersfor the purpose of the payment of grants, comprehensive land survey data is requiredin areas where such data is unavailable, steps should be taken to update such data using latest techniques to ensure accurate logging of land data local level village committees may be engaged for collecting data such as land holding size, crops grown, average costs, etc to help streamline the process of calculating amounts to be given to each farmer in different villages the grants are also required to be credited directly to the aadhaar-linked bank accounts of the farmers twice a year linking to aadhaar will ensure transparency, timely payments and prevent double payment to farmers cultivating the same piece of landas per the agriculture census, 2010-11, the average size of operational holding has declined to 115 ha in 2010-11 as compared to 123 ha in 2005-06 the small and marginal holdings taken together (below 200 ha) constituted 8501 per cent in 2010-11 against 8329 per cent in 2005-06 this shows the increasing burden being faced by majority of the farmers due to decreasing land holding size and increasing input costs such circumstances make agriculture unsustainable since farmers are not able to repay loans that they had taken to procure fertilisers, machinery, tools and other such input costshence this billnew delhi;vinod kumar boianapallinovember 27, 2017 financial   memorandumclause 4 of the bill provides for grants to be paid by the central government and the state government concerned in equal ratio to every farmer in the country it also provides that the grants shall be determined each year in advance by including it in the annual financial statement after taking into account the factors like monsoon, drought, floods, crop diseases, etc and paid directly to the farmers twice in a year before the rabi and kharif crops season clause 5 provides for maintenance of records of land holdings of farmers in every district the bill, therefore, if enacted, will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india the estimate of funds to be drawn from the consolidated fund of india will be determinable only after the amount of grant payable is decided by the central and state governments, respectively however, if an amount of four thousand rupees is determined as the grant payable to a farmer each year, a sum of rupees forty thousand crore would involve as a recurring expenditure per annum from the conslodiated fund of indiano non-recurring expenditure is likely to be involved memorandum   regarding   delegated   legislationclause 6 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the bill as the rules will relate to matters of detail only, the delegation of legislative power is, therefore, of a normal character———— a billto provide for payment of non-returnable grants to the farmers for meeting the input costs in agriculture with a view to promote increased agricultural output and decreased farmer credit and for matters connected therewith————(shri vinod kumar boianapalli, mp)gmgipmrnd—2822ls(s3)—22122017