Finance MinisterArun Jaitley on Wednesday announced a slew of pro-farmer measures in the Budget to push growth in the farm sector. The highlights include fixing farm credit at a record level of Rs10 lakh crore and hiking irrigation fund to Rs40,000 crore. Jaitley also announced setting-up of a Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund with a corpus of Rs8,000 crore to augment farm income.
While underlining that the agriculture sector has made impressive contributions to the GDP, the Government said that with a better monsoon, agriculture is expected to grow at 4.1 per cent in the current year (2016-17) as the total area sown in the Kharif and Rabi seasons is higher than the previous year.
On protecting farmers against natural calamities, Jaitley said, “The Fasal Bima Yojana coverage will be increased from 30 per cent of cropped area in 2016-17 to 40 per cent in 2017-18 and 50 per cent in 2018-19.”
Jaitley said adequate credit would be made available to farmers and the target for agricultural credit in 2017-18 has been fixed at Rs10 lakh crore. Farmers are also expected to benefit from 60 days’ interest waiver announced on December 31, 2016.
For 2017-18, a sum of Rs9,000 crore will be provided and the sum insured under this Yojana has more than doubled from Rs69,000 crore in Kharif season 2015 to Rs1,41,625 crore in Kharif 2016.
Since issuance of Soil Health Cards has gathered momentum, the Government has decided to set-up new mini labs in Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) and ensure 100 per cent coverage of all 648 KVKs in the country.
Admitting that dairy is an important source of additional income for farmers, the FM announced that a Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund would be set-up in NABARD with a corpus of Rs8,000 crore over three years.
The FM also announced various market reforms that would be undertaken to boost farmers’ income while adding that the States would be urged to denotify perishables from Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) so that the farmers can directly sell them in the market and get better prices.
Agricultural marketing is a State subject and despite the Centre’s efforts to nudge States to adopt the model APMC Act, nearly 50 per cent of the States have not made changes to their agricultural marketing laws.
The Government also proposed to integrate farmers who grow fruits and vegetables with agro processing units for better price realisation and reduction of post-harvest losses. A model law on contract farming would, therefore, be prepared and circulated among the States for adoption. The coverage of National Agricultural Market (e-NAM) will be expanded from the current 250 markets to 585 APMCs and assistance up to a ceiling of Rs75 lakh will be provided to every e-NAM market for establishment of cleaning, grading and packaging facilities.