A government fund that was created to help farmers in their difficult times was mostly used to run and maintain government cars for five years. This shocking information was shared by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Thursday.

The report says that the Fertiliser Development Fund (FDF), which was meant to support farmers, was turned into a "virtual fuel tank for bureaucrats' cars." The fund was supposed to provide help to farmers during natural disasters, support Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), and improve fertiliser management.

But from 2017-18 to 2021-22, most of the money from the fund—Rs 4.79 crore out of Rs 5.31 crore—was used for vehicles, drivers' salaries, and car maintenance. This happened during the time of two BJP governments led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan and a 15-month Congress government led by Kamal Nath. Only Rs 5.10 lakh was actually used for farmers' welfare.

At the state level alone, Rs 2.77 crore was spent. Out of that, Rs 2.25 crore went towards just 20 vehicles. The CAG strongly pointed out that this money should have helped farmers and not been turned into a transport budget.

The CAG also said that the MP State Cooperative Marketing Federation (Markfed) did not give supplier rebates on important fertilisers like Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) and Muriate of Potash (MOP) to farmers. Because of this, farmers had to pay Rs 10.50 crore extra. In 2021-22, Markfed even faced a loss of Rs 4.38 crore because it bought fertilisers at high prices and sold them cheaply to farmers. This loss was covered using public money.

In defence, the Cooperation Department’s principal secretary said in February 2024 that the vehicles were needed for “monitoring and supervision.” But the CAG rejected this explanation, saying that vehicle costs had become more important than the farmers’ needs.

The report also revealed that the government never planned fertiliser supply based on soil data, crop patterns, or district needs. Instead, they simply used last year’s data, ignoring large farming areas like vegetable and horticulture crops between 2017 and 2022.

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