By Milind Kokje, Chief Editor, AgroSpectrum
Agriculture appeared to be at the centre stage of the Union Budget 2025-26 presented by the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman to the Lok Sabha on February 1. She has not only put the sector under focus but has linked it to food and nutrition security on the one hand and self-sufficiency, in commodities like pulses, on the other.
It is often said that the real India lives in rural areas, indicating the importance of the agriculture sector and rural economy for the country. Notably, the finance minister seems to have tried to bring that into reality by calling Agriculture the first among four powerful developmental engines. True to the spirit of what she described, Sitharaman has announced several programmes, some even in mission mode for the development of the agri sector and subsequent upliftment of farmers, its main stakeholder.
Development of agri districts, called Prime Minister Dhan-Dhanya Krishi Yojana, self-sufficiency in pulses production called Mission for Atmanirbharata in Pulses, promotion of vegetables and fruits and national mission for high yielding seeds are some of the important programmes, that the finance minister announced in her budget speech.
PM Dhan-Dhanya Krishi Yojana will cover 100 districts, expecting to help 1.7 crore farmers. Three important components of the scheme to be implemented in partnership with state governments are promoting crop diversification, facilitating credit and augmenting storage at even panchayat and block level, which will mainly help marginal and small farmers. Warehousing at village and block level will not only help farmers, but more importantly it will reduce post-harvest losses caused due to inadequate storage facilities.
After the national mission on oilseed-oil palm, which was launched in October 2024, a mission focused on pulses is one more initiative towards self-sufficiency. The government’s intention is significantly important as our pulses imports are growing. In 2023-24 the import touched an all-time high in six years to 4.65 million MTs and in value terms it reached $3.75 billion.
Any attempt to counter the imports and try to achieve self-sufficiency is always a welcome step. The 6-year mission will have a special focus on Tur, Urad and Masoor dals. About a decade back, a similar effort was made with marginal success. But our consumption kept growing making us the largest consumer globally with per capita consumption far exceeding the global average.
Achieving self-sufficiency is crucial since pulses contribute significantly to food security and they are a critical part of the national dietary pattern providing an affordable source of protein. Reliance on imports in the absence of self-sufficiency exposes the country to risks in international trade.
From the nutritional point of view, a comprehensive programme is proposed to promote production, efficient supplies, processing and remunerative prices for vegetables and fruits, the consumption of which is already growing. All these and similar budgetary announcements are aimed at driving growth in the sector.
But with all the good intentions of the finance minister reflecting in various missions proposed in the budget, two apprehensions keep rising. How far these missions will help increase farmers’ income which – on an average of a five-member farmer family as per the situation assessment survey of 2019 – was Rs 10,218. Even the global study by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has shown that only Indian farmers face incredible losses.
The second apprehension is over the lesser allocation for agriculture than the previous year. When so many new programmes have been launched the net allocation for the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare is reduced from Rs 1.31 lakh crore (in revised estimate of 24-25) to Rs 1.27 lakh crore in the current budget (2025-26). This is particularly significant when the revised estimates for 24-25 were increased to Rs 1.31 lakh crore from the budget estimate of Rs 1.22 lakh crore. How the government will clear these apprehensions, will only become evident in due course of time.
—
