The big expectation from the Budget for agriculture was a significant increase in PM Kisan, but there was no such announcement. It stays at ₹6,000 per farmer and ₹60,000 crore as outlay for the year.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman seems to have chosen, as she explains in the speech, productivity and resilience as the pathway for agriculture. Farmers’ incomes, once a key promise, is missing in the narrative.

The expectation seems to be that higher productivity, better R&D, technology and easier access to markets will result in increased incomes of farmers. A Budget of hope, perhaps!

Key announcements

(i) A comprehensive review of agricultural research and the setting up of a fund in a challenge mode thereby making private institutions eligible to access the fund. A major change, long overdue, gets a final go-ahead. This should make ICAR and its institutions to become nimble and proactive while opening the doors for the private institutions and start- ups.

(ii) Mission for oilseeds and pulses: India has struggled to increase the productivity of pulses and oilseeds. There have been earlier missions on pulses and oilseeds with some successes here and there, but nothing substantial enough to meet the increasing domestic demand. The pulses village programme of 2010 did make an impact though.

(iii) Shrimp production and export: This is a scaling up of a successful effort put in by MPEDA and the fisheries departments of coastal States. Combined with the customs exemptions announced, this programme could hit the ground running and make gains for shrimp farmers and export earnings for the country.

(iv) Peri Urban Vegetable production clusters: This again appears to be a modified version of an earlier scheme. Vegetables can provide higher returns to farmers if losses and damage are reduced. Keeping them close to urban consumption centres can ensure this through better market access. Providing access to city markets through farmers’ markets run by FPOs could significantly change the value chain in favour of farmers. A shorter value chain for collection, storage and marketing is the key.

(v) Digital public infrastructure: A digital public infrastructure connecting land holdings, crops and farmers can bring efficiencies in the system leading to better governance. The digital crop surveys should result in easier settlement of crop insurance claims during the next kharif. Farmers are yet to see great benefits from the many versions of digital agriculture and Agri-stack expositions. When they see tangible benefits like easier access to credit, better risk cover, better value capture in markets, timely and usable information on weather, etc., their enthusiasm will surge. Design of these interventions have to keep these in mind.

(vi) Natural farming: The idea is to bring one crore more farmers to the natural farming fold supported by certification and branding. Both certification and branding are problematic. Unless this is carefully structured, the process could backfire. The main focus of natural farming should be a reduction in cost and increased bio diversity creating higher value for the farmer. This objective should not be lost sight of. In any case these farmers who choose not to use chemical fertilizers do not get any incentive, while their counterparts elsewhere get free power and subsidised chemical fertilizers! This will be a challenge.

The provision for agriculture and allied sectors is estimated at ₹1.52-lakh crore. This includes agriculture and farmers’ welfare, agricultural research, fisheries, dairy and animal husbandry, food processing and cooperation.

The allocation for the much-hyped research and development for DARE (ICAR) is ₹9,941 crore, marginally higher than last year’s revised estimate of ₹9,876 crore. I did not find an allocation for the challenge fund. May be it is somewhere in the statements.

So ICAR, which deserved a much higher allocation may have to do with a lot less, which is disappointing. The Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare gets a marginal increase. Cooperation gets a big jump to ₹1,183 crore from ₹747 crore. Fisheries, as a high performing sector gets a deserved increase to ₹2,616 crore from last year’s ₹1,701 crore. Animal husbandry and dairying also get a reasonable hike in their outlays.

Overall, the emphasis seems to be on productivity, technology, climate resilience and digital interventions. There is clearly an overwhelming presence of the need to keep food inflation low in the entire narrative.

Farmers may have hoped for bigger things. They may have nothing to cheer about.

The writer is former Secretary Food & Agriculture, and former Chairman NDDB