Stakeholders Perspective on Agricultural Subsidies in Punjab

The present study entitled “Stakeholders Perspective on Agricultural Subsidies in Punjab” was undertaken to understand the perspectives of stakeholders viz. farmers and extension personnel regarding various aspects of agricultural subsidies in terms of their awareness, satisfaction and problems. A random selection of ninety beneficiary farmers and ninety non-beneficiary farmers and twenty extension personnel were selected from three randomly selected districts of the three agro-climatic zones of Punjab. Findings of the study revealed that very less (25%) farmers were aware about the agriculture schemes providing subsidies whereas all the farmers were aware of the subsidies being provided in the areas of seeds, plant protection materials, machinery, micro-irrigation, power and price (MSP). Input dealers and fellow farmers were found to be the most utilised sources by the farmers to get information regarding agricultural schemes/subsidies. Group meetings, informal personal contacts, farm and home visits and office call were the most employed methods by the extension personnel for the dissemination of the information regarding the schemes/subsidies. The level of satisfaction of the beneficiary farmers was found to be low regarding various aspects of the agricultural subsidies. Lengthy documentation procedure, lesser quantity and sub-standard quality of subsidized inputs were found to be the major problems faced by the farmers regarding agricultural subsidies. A considerable section of farmers also reported problems such as the lack of awareness about the time of availability of subsidy and misallocation of subsidies. Lack of proper infrastructure, less funds, lack of staff and information facilities were the major problems reported by the extension personnel in the disbursement of agricultural subsidies.