The farm sector has received a major push in the Budget with Finance Minister announcing a 22 per cent increase in allocation to the Agriculture Ministry. Crop diversification, watershed management, livestock development, market linkages and Green Revolution in Eastern India will get a further impetus from the higher outlay.

“I propose to allocate Rs 27,049 crore to the Ministry of Agriculture, an increase of 22 per cent over the revised estimates of the current year. Of this, agricultural research will be provided Rs 3,415 crore,” said the Finance Minister P. Chidambaram presenting his eighth budget.

The National Livestock Mission with an outlay of Rs 307 crore will be launched in 2013-14 to attract investment and to enhance productivity taking into account the local-agro climatic conditions. Further, a sub-mission for increasing the availability of feed and fodder would also be launched.

Crop diversification

Chidambaram has allocated Rs 500 crore to start a programme of crop diversification that would promote technological innovation and encourage farmers to choose crop alternatives. The scheme mainly targets original green revolution States such as Punjab and Haryana, which face stagnation in yields and over-exploitation of water resources.

Further, the Finance Minister also hiked allocation to integrated watershed programmed to Rs 5,387 crore from Rs 3,050 crore, a move that may help small and medium farmers in drought-prone and ecologically-stressed regions.

Pilot on Nutri-Farms

In a bid to introduce new crop varieties that are rich in micro-nutrients such as iron-rich bajra, protein-rich maize and zinc-rich wheat, the Finance Minister proposed to start pilot nutri-farms with an allocation of Rs 200 crore. The Agriculture Ministry is expected to formulate a scheme in this regard. Further, the pilot scheme to re-plant and rejuvenate coconut gardens will be expanded to entire state of Kerala.

The National Institute of Biotic Stress Management for addressing plant protection issues will be established at Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Besides, the Indian Institute of Agricultural Bio-Technology will be established at Ranchi.

Continuing with the interest subvention programme for short-term loan, the Finance Minister expanded the scheme to crop loans borrowed from private sector scheduled commercial bank. Also, the agricultural credit target has been hiked to Rs 7 lakh crore for 2013-14 over previous year’s Rs 5.75 lakh crore. Chidambaram also said Rs 10,000 crore has been set apart to meet the incremental costs of the proposed National Food Security Bill.

Market linkages

Registered farmer producer organisations (FPO) will get a matching equity grant of up to Rs 10 lakh per FPO to enable them to leverage working capital from financial institutions. Further, a Credit Guarantee Fund will also be created in the Small Farmers’ Agri Business Corporation with an initial corpus of Rs 100 crore.

> Vishwanath.kulkarni@thehindu.co.in

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