Ram Kaundinya, Director General, Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII) commenting on the budget said that 2021-22 budget was “ status quo budget” for agriculture in general and the seed industry.

He said that agriculture contributed significantly to the successful fight against Covid-19 but did not get the needed attention in the budget. No transformative measures have been proposed.

He said, “ Investments in research in agriculture are not addressed, especially, since research and innovation is one of the six pillars of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat and there is a need to scale up private sector investments in agricultural research. There is an urgent need to step up investments in research into agri biotechnology, seed technology and modern technologies for farmers. Seed industry was expecting the restoration of 200 per cent tax deduction of research expenses, but it has not been met”.

Kaundinya added that the industry expected a major project to invest in scaling up domestic oilseeds production through incentives for farmers, use of modern technologies in crops like mustard, soybean and ground nut, etc with an eye on reducing huge imports of edible oils. “The industry also expected some major announcement of investment to push up agricultural exports to 100B$ in the next 4-5 years. A special economic corridor and cluster approach investments would have been in order” he said.

“ Increase in agricultural credit to Rs. 16.54 lakh crores. Will help farmers in accessing more credit. Infrastructure oriented budget. Rs. 40,000 cr for rural infrastructure is a good measure. Will help villages and will indirectly benefit farmers” Kaundinya added. He welcomed step to increase import duty on cotton as a useful measure to improve domestic prices.

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