FSII expresses disappointment over lack of focus on Agri research in budget 2021 

Investments in Research in agriculture are not addressed, especially, since research & innovation is one of the 6 pillars of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat and there is a need to scale up private sector investments in agricultural research. 

 According to Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII) the Union Budget 2021-22 is a status quo budget for agriculture in general and for seed industry in particular.

Agriculture contributed significantly to our successful fight against COVID. But the sector did not get the needed attention in the budget. No transformative measures have been proposed.

Disappointments:

Investments in Research in agriculture are not addressed, especially, since research & innovation is one of the 6 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 restoration of 200% tax deduction of research expenses but it has not been met.

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 would be announced with an eye on reducing huge imports of edible oils. No such project was announced.

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.

The industry also expected some major announcement of investments to scale up mechanization of agriculture to address high labour costs that farmers are incurring but no such measures have been taken.

According to FSII following are the positive points in the union budget 2021:

• 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.
• 10, 000 cr for micro irrigation is a good measure.
• Including 22 perishable crops in Operation Green is good. It will help farmers.
• Increasing import duty on cotton is a good measure that should help improving domestic prices although we are no longer a major cotton importer. We are actually the largest exporter in the world, courtesy Bt Cotton driven increase in cotton production.
• Output marketing related measures like extending ENAM to 1000 more Mandis and making Agri Infrastructure Fund available for upgrading infrastructure in APMCs are good. This will also help farmers.