Context
But silence on reforming food and fertiliser subsidies is disappointing
Growth in Agri-GDP
Author states that Agri-GDP growth in FY17 is likely to register a growth of 4.1 per cent, primarily due to normal rainfall
Stress on raising funds for irrigation
The prime minister voiced the slogan of “Harkhetkopani” and “per drop, more crop” to drought-proof agriculture and ensure water use efficiency. This will help augment farmers’ earnings and contribute to the doubling of their incomes in five years, as reiterated by the finance minister
Focus on improving irrigation efficiency & area under irrigation
- Allocation of Rs 20000 Crore to long-term irrigation fund: An enhanced corpus of Rs 20000 crore with NABARD for irrigation, on top of last year’s Rs 20000 crore, takes the total fund size to Rs 40000 Crore which is a very welcome step
- A Dedicated micro irrigation fund: Budget has announced a dedicated micro irrigation fund which will be set up in NABARD to achieve the goal, ‘per drop more crop’, with an initial corpus of Rs 5,000 crore.
- A corpus of Rs 7,160 crore for the schemes under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY)
Significance: Improving irrigation efficiency is critical for agriculture since we have only 2.4 per cent of the world’s total geographical area and 18 per cent of the world’s population, but only 4 per cent of the world’s total fresh water resources
Charting course for PMFBY
The Pradhan Mantri FasalBima Yojana (PMFBY) crop insurance scheme, which was launched in the year 2016, also finds a special mention in the budget with the finance minister clearly charting out its course; the aim is that in the next two years, the government will cover half of the cropped area under this scheme
Promoting Milk processing
Budget announced setting up of a dairy processing and infrastructure development fund at NABARD with a corpus of Rs 8,000 crore over three years. The fund will start with a corpus of Rs 2,000 crore
Significance: Dairy is critical to bringing sustainability to agriculture. There are millions of examples where farmers have shown their ability to manage inclement weather and market vagaries by investing in dairy as an alternate mode of income
Silence on food & fertilizer subsidy reform
The only disappointment in the budget is that the government is absolutely silent on reforming food and fertiliser subsidies, totaling more than Rs 2,15,000 crore plus pending bills of about Rs 80,000 crore
- This is the biggest resource guzzler with high inefficiency and leakages. Unless these areas are boldly reformed, agriculture will not get wings to take off fully
