Budget 2022: New farm schemes but meagre funding
Premium- Overall, the Budget for the farm sector, including agriculture research, animal husbandry and fisheries, was raised marginally
New Delhi: From promoting chemical-free farming and funding agri-tech startups to delivery of digital services to farmers, the Budget presented on Tuesday made a clutch of announcements for the agriculture sector. However, a look at the Budget documents showed these schemes were allocated paltry sums.
“For delivery of digital and hi-tech services to farmers with the involvement of public sector research institutions, private agri-tech players, and stakeholders of agri-value chain, a scheme in PPP mode will be launched," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her speech. She added that ‘Kisan drones’ will be introduced by the government for crop assessment, digitization of land records, and spraying of insecticides and nutrients. The scheme was allocated a mere ₹60 crore in the budget.
On chemical-free farming, the minister said that natural farming will be promoted across the country with a focus on farmland along the banks of river Ganga. Last year, the scheme, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, was allocated ₹450 crore (2021-22 budget estimate), but revised estimates showed just ₹100 crore was spent during the year. Its unclear how much the scheme received in 2022-23 since it has been merged under an umbrella scheme named Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana that aims to improve productivity and farmer returns.
Overall, the Budget for the farm sector, including agriculture research, animal husbandry and fisheries, was raised marginally, from ₹1.35 trillion in 2021-22 to ₹1.38 trillion in 2022-23 (budget estimates or BE).
Moreover, the Budget promised to reduce dependence on imported edible oils and promised to implement a scheme to increase domestic production of oilseeds. To promote cultivation of oil-palm and other native oilseeds, the budget allocated ₹1,500 crore, up from ₹100 crore in 2021-22 (revised estimates or RE).
Further, Sitharaman said that the apex rural bank NABARD will set up a fund to finance startups and rural enterprises to improve the agriculture value chain. These will focus on supporting farmer producer organisations (FPOs), provide machinery on rent and provide technical support to farmers. However, funding for promotion of FPO’s were reduced from ₹700 crore in 2021-22 to ₹500 crore in 2022-23 (BE).
Among other major farm sector schemes, funding for the prime minister’s crop insurance scheme was slashed from ₹16,000 crore (2021-22 BE) to ₹15,500 crore (2022-23 BE). Allocation for the flagship direct cash transfer scheme, PM-Kisan, was raised marginally to ₹68,000 crore.
The Budget speech did not even mention the promise of doubling of farmers income, even though we have reached the target year 2022, farm policy advocacy group Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, said in a statement. It added that despite the talk about promoting natural farming, the Budget allocations and previous year’s expenditures do not provide clarity how these goals will be achieved.
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