India Union Budget 2022-23 and the agriculture sector
The Indian agricultural sector played a major role in reviving our economy amidst Covid'19 Pandemic. The annual Budget 2022-23 focused on ensuring assured income to farmers paving the way for the economic revival for the farmers. India would be able to manage to successfully meet the increased global demands despite the Global pandemic since early 2020. An effort is made in this Article to give an insight of the highlights of the Budget 2022-23 with reference to the Agri-sector.
Introduction
We can't deny the fact that agriculture is a fundamental part of India's recovery process and a crucial sector of the Indian economy. Union Budget 2022-23 is an indicator of the Government's commitment to further boost the sector and its projection as agriculture as part of its growth pillar and the major contributor to India's development model. The Central Government has to repeal the three controversial farm reform laws brought in 2020 due to the Months-long farmers' agitation demanding guaranteed MSP their Farm yield. The overall allocation for the sector increased marginally to Rs 132,513.62 crore in 2022-23, from the 2021-22 revised estimates (RE) of Rs 126,807.86 crore.The salient features of Budget 2022 in the field of Agriculture
The key elements that influence the Agriculture sector and the Indian peasant which have been highlighted in the Budget 2022 are:How it would help the farmers?
The budget seemed to be aimed to usher to transform Agriculture through Digitalisation, R&D and increasing the scope Supply Chain system. About 100 new Railway Logistics hubs are going to be operated to ensure smooth movement of agricultural produce across the country and help in reducing wastage through PM Gati Shakti. This would speed up the supply chain and reduce logistic costs. It is the right step to revise the syllabus in Universities and Colleges in the Field of Agriculture and the inclusion of Post offices into the core banking sector will help the farmers to receive the benefits provided by the Government in the rural parts of the country without any hindrance.
Chemical-free agriculture, commonly known as Organic agriculture which is gaining ground in India has been given importance in this Budget. It is aimed at transforming into natural and chemical-free farming throughout the country with a special focus on farmer's lands in five kilometre wide corridor along the river Ganga. This would reduce ecological imbalance and regulate the ecosystem.Wrap Up
The sector of agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy, providing employment contributing to 48.9% of the entire workforce in the country, also 17-18% of India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Restoration of important schemes like Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and Krishi Unnati Yojana for the betterment of farmers is a welcome sign. But the important elements such as Crop insurance and Minimum Support Price (MSP) as the farmers, benefit from better prices for their contributions were not given due importance. Let us hope that the Amrit Kaal as foreseen by the Finance Minister would make the Indian peasants happier in the future and would continue to contribute to the growth of Indian economy.
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This is an excellent article giving a lot of information about the impact of Union Budget 2022-23 on the agriculture sector. It is very true that agriculture is the backbone of the country and more facilities and protection given to this area will bring the real term development to the country.
About 3 years back, in our housing society, one Chinese sales person belonging to some Chinese machine company was staying temporarily on rent and used to meet us in the morning time during the morning walk and yoga session and we used to talk about so many things and he used to tell us about his country. We were surprised to know that the farmers in China were in quite good condition as the Govt there took the load of production on its head and paid them almost 70% of the market prices. It was unbelievable because giving such a MSP would incur a huge Govt subsidy expenditure. Then we asked him from where the Govt got such a huge money. He told us that the there is so much scope of revenue generation by Govt in China that there was no problem of course because of the very strict and good governance in that country that Govt never had problem of funds. So, China is very advanced in that matter and has enough agricultural support from the farmers as farmers are also happy with the regime.
On the other hand all the schemes in India look good as far as the agricultural sector is concerned but the crucial question of MSP still remains unresolved. I think if Govt is able to realise the tax collections and GST effectively, we can generate a large revenue and give a major chunk of it for agriculture sector for steeply increasing the MSP. If a farmer produces X tons of a material then he has to be paid for that X tons irrespective of the fact that it could not be procured and transferred to the Govt or private godowns. FCI cannot do that herculean task. It has to be shared by private enterprises under Govt control. Obviously it also asks for an honest and corruption less process.