The latest interim budget unveiled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has highlighted significant initiatives for India's agriculture sector. Among the significant announcements was an emphasis on value addition through food processing, a drive towards self-sufficiency in oil seed production, and policies aimed at enlarging farmers' incomes.
While the budget maintained the allocation for the PM KISAN Samman Scheme at Rs 60,000 crore, no raise in direct cash transfers was announced. The scheme continues to support nearly 11.8 crore small and marginal farmers.
In her interim budget speech, the finance minister said that the agriculture sector is poised for inclusive, balanced higher growth and productivity. These are facilitated from farmer centric policies, income support, coverage of risk through price and insurance support, promotion of technologies and innovations through start ups.
Atmanirbharta in oil seeds
India is one of the major importers of edible oil and nearly 60 per cent of the requirement is met through imports. India imports about 150 lakh tons of vegetable oil annually costing over Rs 1.35 lakh crore. The country could not sustain the self sufficiency in oil seed production achieved through "yellow revolution" of early 1990 s beyond a short period.
Finance Minister said that Atmanirbhar Oil Seeds Abhiyan will be launched to achieve self sufficiency in production of oil seeds such as mustard, groundnut, sesame, soybean and sunflower. Research for developing high yielding varieties of these crops will be intensified. Building on the initiative announced in 2022, this will cover widespread adoption of modern farming techniques, market linkages, procurement, value addition and crop insurance.
Food Processing and Value Addition
Indian food processing market is projected to reach US$ 535 billion by 2025-26 at a CGAR of over 15 per cent. The government has launched initiatives to strengthen the food processing sector under schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana( PMKSY) and Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Yojana (PMFME).
Finance Minister said that efforts for value addition in agriculture sector and boosting farmers income will be stepped up. PMKSY has benefited 38 lakh farmers and generated 10 lakh employment. PMFME yojana has assisted 2.4 lakh SHGs and 60,000 individuals with credit linkage.
According to a report of FAO, India's food loss percentage hovers around 4.5 %. The country faces considerable post harvest losses especially for perishables like fruits and vegetables. Other schemes in this sector are for complementing the efforts for reducing post- harvest losses and improving productivity and incomes.
Dairy Development
India is the largest producer of milk and ranks second in the production of farmed fish. Finance minister announced that a comprehensive programme for supporting dairy farmers will be formulated. The programme will be built on the success of existing schemes such as Rashtriya Gokul Mission, National Livestock Mission and infrastructure development funds for dairy processing and animal husbandry.
Matsya Sampada
Compared to crop production sector, the allied sectors of animal husbandry and fisheries have recorded robust growth in recent years. Setting up of a separate department of fisheries by the Narendra Modi government has resulted in doubling of both inland and aquaculture production. Sea food export since 2013-14 has also been doubled. Implementation of Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana will be stepped up to enhance aquaculture productivity from existing 3 tons to 5 tons per hectare, double exports to Rs 1 lakh crore and generate 55 lakh employment opportunities in near future. Government will set up five integrated aquaparks.
Bio- Manufacturing and Bio-Foundry
The finance minister announced that for promoting green growth a new scheme of bio-manufacturing and bio-foundry will be launched. This will provide environment friendly alternatives such as biodegradable polymers, bio-plastics, bio-pharmaceuticals and bio-agri-inputs. This scheme will help in transforming today's consumptive manufacturing paradigm to the one based on regenerative principles.
Namo Drone Didi
The programme aims to provide drones to 15,000 women self help groups during the period 2024-25 to 2025-26 for providing rental services to farmers. The budget allocated Rs 500 crore for Namo Drone Didi scheme. The drones owned by women SHGs can be rented by farmers to spray fertilizers and pesticides.
Cut in fertilizer subsidy
Finance Minister has lowered the fertilizer subsidy to Rs 1.64 lakh crore in the interim budget 2024-25 from Rs1.89 crore in the revised budget estimates for FY 24. The 13 per cent cut in the fertilizer subsidy is in view of the drop in international prices of fertilizers and government's efforts to promote use of alternate fertilizers, nano urea and nano DAP and PM PRANAM scheme which will result in less use of subsidised chemical fertilizers. The PM Programme for Restoration Awareness, Nourishment and Amelioration of Mother Earth (PM PRANAM) was launched in the budget 2023-24 to incentivize states to promote alternative fertilizers and balanced use of chemical fertilizers. States which reduce the consumption of chemical fertilizers compared to their average of last three years will get financial assistance from central government.
Liquid nano urea developed by Indian Farmers' Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO)was released in February 2021 as an eco-friendly and efficient alternative for traditional urea. Cost of one bottle( half a litre) nano urea is Rs 240.There is no subsidy for nano urea. It can replace a bag of 45 kg of traditional urea which is heavily subsidised. Promotion of nano urea among farmers will lower urea import and subsidy burden of government.
Application of liquid nano DAP (Di Ammonium Phosphate ) on various crops will be promoted in all agro climatic zones similar to nano urea. IFFCO's liquid nano DAP contains 8 per cent nitrogen and 16 per cent phosphorus. A bottle of Nano DAP (half a litre ) costs Rs 600 whereas a bag of 50 kg of traditional DAP is sold at Rs 1350.A bottle of nano DAP can replace one bag of traditional DAP. There is no subsidy for Nano DAP. Central government allowed the commercial use of liquid Nano DAP in March last year.
Allocation for Agri Dept
The allocation for the department of agriculture and farmers' welfare has nominally increased in revised budget 2024-25 to Rs 1.27 lakh crore from revised estimates of Rs 1.16 lakh crore for 2023-24 and budget estimates of Rs 1.15 lakh crore for 2023-24..
Allocation for some of the key schemes of the department of agriculture and farmers' welfare was slashed in the interim budget 2024-25.The crop insurance scheme PM Fasal Bima Yojana was allocated Rs 14, 600 crore for 2024-25 as against Rs 15,000 crore in the revised budget estimate for 2023-24.The fund for national mission on natural farming was slashed from Rs 459 crore in the revised budget 2023-24 to Rs 366 crore in the budget estimates for 2024-25.
