By D Narain
Agriculture remains the primary source of livelihood for roughly 58% of India’s working population and the sector has significant potential for growth, with the ability to accelerate rural development and growth. It has proved to be considerably resilient — one of the few green spots in a sea of red — as the economy faced considerable headwinds due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The road ahead looks promising even as the sector is set to clock 3.9% growth this financial year. Undoubtedly, government support, a conducive policy framework, and budgetary incentives linked to investments in agriculture are key to reinvigorating the sector and making Indian agriculture globally competitive, especially with the emphasis on agri-technologies and digital transformation.
This Budget has continued to follow the reform initiative started a few years ago by bringing in enabling policy initiatives that will help transform the sector. The announcements made by the finance minister are expected to accelerate the sector’s growth by focusing on streamlining agricultural value chains to boost farmer incomes and farm productivity. This will be further bolstered by the budgetary proposal to launch a scheme under the public-private partnership model for empowering farmers with digital and hi-tech services. Transformative growth is the need of the hour and integrating new technologies like drones into current farming practices will play an important role in bridging the technology gap for Indian farmers. With ‘kisan drones’ being used for crop assessment, spraying of insecticides and pesticides, yield assessment and pest monitoring, challenges related to low productivity, labour shortages and access to good quality crop protection solutions can be successfully and swiftly overcome. Hence, the government’s emphasis on agri-tech is promising, considering its widespread application on fields, providing real-time agronomic advisory to farmers and enhancing farm productivity. Additionally, the strong emphasis to improve oilseed productivity and reduce imports can be accelerated by adopting modern agri input technologies and increasing the thrust on creating integrated value chains.
A related area to be strengthened in the coming years is the online trading platform, eNAM, which has proved vital for enabling smooth and transparent marketing of farm produce and needs to increase farmer access for commodity risk management. To bring the power of scale to smallholder farmers, farmer producer organisations (FPOs) have a vital role to play to drive while spurring yield improvements. That is why the government’s thrust on financing start-ups for agriculture and rural enterprises to support FPOs is a very positive move to scale up their role.
Adoption of sustainable farm practices using modern inputs will also be critical for Indian farming as we move into the future. Carbon credit generation projects in farming will not only help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve water efficiency and soil health, but also create additional value for farmers through carbon credits generated.
In the final analysis, the integration of innovation and digital transformation can foster productivity and food security, equipping Indian farmers to not only meet India’s needs, but also to export Indian farm produce globally. This Budget continues to make significant progress on empowering farmers with the right technology and policy initiatives to bring about tangible changes in the lives of millions of smallholders in India.
(The author is President, Bayer South Asia, and global head of smallholder farming. Views are personal.)
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