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Zero-budget farming policy in Budget has potential for growth of agri
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Monday, 15 July, 2019, 12 : 00 PM [IST]
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Rupa Das
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The foundation of the Indian food sector lies in the hands of farmers, who form the backbone of the Indian economy. The country’s agricultural system is in dire need for agro-marketing reforms, and the Union Budget for 2019-20 clearly outlined its priority, giving due recognition to gaon, garib aur kisan as the drivers of development and growth in rural areas.
Some of the key policies undertaken in this Budget, which have the potential for overall growth of Indian agriculture are:
- Zero-budget farming with emphasis on organic farming, reducing fertiliser dependency and encouraging healthy eating
- Bamboo and timber farming support for generating renewable energy
- Electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) scheme to benefit the farmers
- Formation of 10,000 new farmer-producer organisations (FPOs) in order to link farmers with markets
- Create agripreneurs through creating 80 livelihood business incubators (LBIs) and 20 technology business incubators (TBIs) to develop 75,000 skilled entrepreneurs in the agro-rural industry sector
- One hundred live business incubators
- For 2019-20, the Budget provided Rs 1.84 lakh crore and Rs 80,000 crore for food and fertiliser subsidies, respectively
- Food safety is a priority also fortification of rice and its distribution through public distribution system gains significance
- The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme, under which it will provide Rs 6,000 annually to 14.5 crore farmers in three equal installments
- Key programmes like PM Awas Yojana and PM Gram Sadak Yojana, under which 30,000km of Gram Sadak Yojana roads have been built using clean technology, thereby reducing the carbon footprint. Over 1.25 lakh km of rural roads will be laid or upgraded in the next five years at a cost of Rs 80,000 to Rs 1,50,000 crore
- Scheme of fund for upgrade and regeneration of traditional industries
- Ensuring safe and adequate drinking water for all, Swatchh Bharat Abhiyan and PM Gramin Digital Saksharata Abhiyan will help agriculture and rural families
- Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), a new integrated scheme for addressing the problems faced by fishing communities and the fisheries sector (both inland and marine), which offers tremendous scope for overall growth of Indian agriculture, besides contributing to the nutrition space
Moving on to the Indian food services industry providing over six million jobs annually could not get lucky in this Budget as it continues to face issues like absence of single-window clearance system and overburden of about 15 licences for even starting a snack outlet. The removal of input tax credit (ITC) has also not found any relief, which has further burdened the end consumers.
Like-wise several areas remain untouched. These include:
- Food exports measures to boost our agriculture exports in the form of a robust policy with tangible changes were clearly lacking
- Agriculture marketing reforms should take centre-stage in the agenda
- Promoting food processing business in a big way, especially fruits and vegetables
- Reducing food subsidies in a planned manner and increasing investments
- Upgrade agro-technologies to world-class standards
- From farm to fork - Creating a value food chain based on a robust logistics infrastructure system is the key to raise farmers’ incomes
- Working on increasing non-farm incomes for the farmers
The government has received a massive mandate and there is a will to change the age-old barriers. The focus should be on creating long-term policies for transforming agriculture.
To conclude, the Union Budget 2019 has rays of positive growth for rural India, but the roadmap for the next five years and implementation holds the key.
(The author is an independent F&B marketing consultant based in Mumbai)
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