The Modi Government’s maiden Budget, committing to sustain 4 per cent growth in agriculture, has come up with a slew of measures for the sector to strengthen warehousing, irrigation, expand R&D infrastructure, enhance farm credit, besides setting up a price stabilisation fund to help farmers deal with weather volatility.

Jaitley said, “We will bring technology-driven second Green Revolution with a focus on higher productivity and include “protein revolution” as an area of major focus”. He allocated ₹5,000 crore for creation of scientific warehousing infrastructure, a move that’s intended to boost shelf-life of agriculture produce.

Announcing the ₹1,000-crore ‘ Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana ’, the Minister said it will help provide assured irrigation and reduce risks related to monsoon vagaries.

The Budget also proposed to establish a ‘National Adaptation Fund’ with an intitial contribution of ₹100 crore to deal with challenges of climate change.

A proposal to set up a ‘Price Stabilisation Fund' with a corpus of ₹500 crore to insulate farmers from price volatility was also announced.

In a move to integrate markets across the country, Jaitley said: “The Central Government will work closely with the State Governments to re-orient their respective APMC Acts, to provide for establishment of private market yards/ private markets for setting up a National Market.”

Research institues

Among the other boosters for the sector are proposals to set up research institutions on the lines of Indian Agricultural Research Institute in Assam and Jharkhand with an allocation of ₹100 crore in current fiscal.

A ₹100-crore “Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund” is also being planned.

The Government also proposes to set up Agriculture Universities in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and Horticulture Universities in Telangana and Haryana. To prevent soil degradation, the Government will initiate a scheme to provide to every farmer a soil health card in a ‘mission mode’. “I propose to set aside a sum of ₹100 crore for this purpose and an additional ₹56-crore to set up 100 Mobile Soil Testing Laboratories across the country,” he said.

Food processing

To incentivise expansion of food processing capacity, Jaitley proposed to reduce excise duty on specified food processing and packaging machinery from 10 per cent to 6 per cent, and also exempted service tax on loading, unloading, storage, warehousing and transportation of cotton, whether ginned or baled, to bring the fibre it on par with certain other agricultural produce.

A target of ₹8 lakh crore has been set aside for agricultural credit in the current financial year, Jaitley said, adding that the interest subvention scheme for short-term crop loans will continue and farmers will get further incentive of three per cent for timely repayment.

To raise farmer awareness, Jaitley also announced setting up of Kisan TV at a cost of ₹100 crore.

“The Budget has clearly given full importance to farm and farming, including the use of technology,” said Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh.

However, Ashok Chavan, Congress leader from Maharashtra, rued that there was nothing for rain-deficient regions, including Vidarbha, in the Budget.

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