Comments
What’s changed?
Not much. Though the Agriculture Ministry’s total allocation has ballooned to 1.3 lakh crore in 2019-20, much of this will go to the Income Support Scheme and PM Kisan Pension Yojana.
Allocations for the Ministry’s various schemes is the same as in the interim budget presented by Piyush Goyal on February 1. The only new item of expenditure under the Ministry was PM Kisan Pension Yojana with an outlay of ₹900 crore for 2019-20. There has been a small bump up in allocation to Department of Fisheries and Animal Husbandry and Dairying.
Total subsidies to the sector stood at ₹2.89 lakh crore for 2019-20, slightly higher than the interim budget estimate, as fertiliser subsidy has gone up.
While the Finance Minister assured support to private investors in infrastructure projects, there was no roadmap given on how the ₹25 lakh crore as promised in the election manifesto would be invested in agriculture infrastructure. Stakeholders were expecting easier licensing norms and tax incentives for investment in the agri space. There was no announcement on the national warehousing grid either.
The background
The NDA government has not met with much success in the reforms it initiated in the agriculture sector in its last term. Unfavourable monsoon rains saw efforts to raise farmers’ income by 10 per cent in a year, derailed. While higher MSP assurance and increase in area under irrigation increased food output, the government could not check food prices from falling. Procurement under the MSP scheme, including of pulses and oilseeds, increased but was not enough to hold prices from falling. eNAM – the electronic National Agriculture Market scheme, which was expected to bring benefits of ‘one nation, one market’ quickly, didn’t help much. While the 585 markets targeted were covered within the set deadline, the inter-mandi and inter-State trades failed to catch up. Lack of full support from States in implementing the project was an impediment.
For PM Fasal Bima Yojana, too, implementation has not been up to the mark. It took the Centre about two years to plug the loopholes and in the meantime the scheme earned the wrath of people. The PM Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, another pet scheme of Modi, has been progressing slowly. Lower than targeted allocation for the scheme, and lower than budgeted spend every year, has resulted in only a small increase in the area under micro irrigation. The last five years have thus seen little progress for rural India. Agri GDP growth has dropped to 2.89 per cent from 4.27 per cent in the previous five years.
Verdict
With ₹75,000 crore swallowed by the Income Support Scheme, there is no new scheme or allocation for the agri sector. This has disappointed stakeholders, who were looking for concrete measures to push private investment in agri infrastructure. Doubling farmers’ income by 2022 looks a challenge now.
Key takeaways
No increase in allocation to any flagship scheme from interim budget
The income support scheme and pension scheme take away a chunk of funds
No roadmap for agri infrastructure investment
No Mixed-Media Items
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.