Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

A large proportion of Indian population relies upon agriculture and related activities to earn a living, but the fourth financial year budget saw a marginal 2% rise in the allocation of funds. However, shares of this sector in the overall budget allocation have fallen from 4.26% in 2021-2022 to 3.48% in 2022-23.

It can be seen from budget documents that several subsidies have been cut, including those for fertilizer. These subsidies have been reduced from 1.40 lakh crore to 1.05 lakh crore in the coming fiscal year. Petroleum and food subsidies have also been cut.

Nirmala Sitharaman has announced high levels of payment for the procurement of rice and paddy at minimum support price. “The procurement of wheat in Rabi 2021-22 and estimated procurement of paddy in Kharif 2021-2022, will cover 1,208 lakh metric tonnes of wheat and paddy from 163 lakh farmers, and 2.37 lakh crore direct payment of MSP value to their accounts”, the finance minister said.

Yet the primary focus of her speech was on agricultural technologies and related startups. For instance, the use of drones in the agricultural sector to help farmers assess crops, digitize land records etc. Despite this, experts are skeptical that drones will increase the income of farmers.

According to experts, the involvement of drones in crop assessments will fundamentally benefit insurance companies and big farmers. Those who perform sustainable farming will not have any significant benefit.

Furthermore, digitizing methods for land records might not solve land disputes and might lead to the exclusion of women, tenant farmers, and sharecroppers from schemes.

Opinions

  • A popular opinion among the farmer groups is unpleasant about the failure to prioritize the allocation of finds. The leader of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Uttar Pradesh faction has mentioned, “its clear from this budget that the government is working with an attitude of revenge against farmers. It has failed to deliver on its promise to double farm incomes by this year.”
  • “The announcement in this year’s budget on strengthening the delivery of digital and hi-tech services to farmers through public- private partnership model will go long way in helping Indian farmers reap the benefits of technological advancement,” Bayer’s South Asia president D. Narain said.

Previous Target

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced back in 2016 that Indian farmer’s income would double by the time India celebrates its 75th Independence Day. Surprisingly, neither the speech of the union finance minister nor the documents advocate any such policy to facilitate the target.

Other schemes

A few schemes saw an evident increase in allocations, like the Blue Revolution initiative to increase fisheries infrastructure, aquaculture, and seafood.

On the contrary, there are programmes like organic farming, on which the details are largely missing. The only two points, which are cited in the finance minister’s speech, firstly, it talks about the revised syllabi of the agricultural universities to meet the need for nature, zero budget, and organic farming.

Secondly, the promotion of chemical-free natural farming throughout the country. However, as per the budget document, no funds have been allocated to the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), which provides end-to-end support to organic farmers.

In comparison with previous years, the Union Budget for 2022-2023 saw a relatively modest increase in allocations to the agricultural sector and related policies.

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