90% Of Farmers Fund Used To Fuel Cars, Not Crops In Madhya Pradesh: CAG

A fund meant to support farmers in their time of need was instead spent largely on fueling and maintaining government vehicles for five long years. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) dropped this political bombshell in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Thursday, revealing that the Fertilizer Development Fund created for farmers' welfare had become a virtual fuel tank for bureaucrats' cars.

From 2017-18 to 2021-22, across three state governments - two BJP regimes led by current Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and a 15-month Congress regime under Kamal Nath - 90 per cent of the Rs 5.31 crore fund (Rs 4.79 crore) was spent on vehicles, drivers' salaries, and maintenance at state and district levels. The actual benefits to farmers, such as fertiliser subsidies during natural calamities, training, or agricultural equipment, amounted to a mere Rs 5.10 lakh.

At the state level alone, Rs 2.77 crore was spent, including a staggering Rs 2.25 crore on just 20 vehicles. The CAG stressed that the Fertilizer Development Fund's (FDF) original mandate was to provide critical assistance to farmers, strengthen Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), and improve fertiliser management, not to become a transport budget.

The rot ran deeper. The CAG revealed that the MP State Cooperative Marketing Federation (Markfed) failed to pass on supplier rebates on Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) and Muriate of Potash (MOP) fertilisers to farmers, burdening them with an extra Rs 10.50 crore. In 2021-22, buying fertilisers at high rates and selling them cheaper to farmers led to a Rs 4.38 crore loss for Markfed, a blow ultimately borne by the public exchequer.

Defending the spending, the Cooperation Department's principal secretary claimed in February 2024 that vehicles were necessary for "monitoring and supervision" of fertiliser distribution. But the CAG dismissed this as unacceptable, saying vehicle expenses had overshadowed FDF's actual priorities.

Perhaps most shockingly, the government never assessed fertiliser needs using soil data, crop patterns, or district-level inputs. Instead, allocations were based on last year's consumption, ignoring vast areas under vegetables and horticulture from 2017-22.