Before the general elections, in the interim budget for the financial year 2024-25, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while addressing the farmers as Annadata, said that their welfare is the top priority of the Central Government and the country will move forward with the empowerment and prosperity of the farmers.

But do the budget provisions also reflect this sentiment of the government? The budget of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has increased by only Rs 740 crore. If we look at various departments related to agriculture and rural economy, the total allocation of Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Fertilizers, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries and Department of Food and Public Distribution is approximately less than the revised estimate for the financial year 2023-24. It has decreased by three percent. In the budget speech, the Finance Minister said that to become self-reliant in edible oils, a new strategy will be prepared to promote the production of oilseed crops like mustard, groundnut, soybean and sunflower. In this, emphasis will be laid on research on high productivity varieties of oilseeds, dissemination of modern agricultural practices, market linkage and value addition. Government and private investment will be encouraged for post-harvest activities such as storage, supply chain, processing and marketing.

After the success of Nano Urea, the government is now emphasizing on the adoption of Nano DAP. Nano DAP will be used on various crops in all agro-climatic zones. In the total interim budget of Rs 47.65 lakh crore, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has been allocated Rs 1,17,528.79 crore for 2024-25, while the revised estimate for the current financial year is Rs 1,16,788.96 crore. The argument can be made that it being an interim budget, major announcements have been avoided. But we should also remember that PM Kisan Samman Nidhi was announced in the interim budget of 2019-20 itself and its two installments were paid to the farmers before the implementation of the Election Code of Conduct. There has been no change in the amount of Rs 60,000 crore allocated for this scheme. Under this scheme, farmers are being given Rs 6,000 a year, which was expected to increase. The budget provision of Rs 60,000 crore for the current financial year in MNREGA, a major source of income for people in rural areas, has been revised to Rs 86,000 crore. There is also a provision of Rs 86,000 crore for the new financial year. The amount of crop insurance scheme has been cut. It has been reduced from the revised estimate of Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 14,600 crore.

The government, along with many experts, also talks about innovation in agriculture to increase the income of farmers, but the allocation for agricultural research has been increased by only Rs 65 crore from the revised estimate of Rs 9876.60 crore for the current year to Rs 9941.09 crore. There has definitely been a significant increase in the amount of PM Agricultural Irrigation Scheme. For this, the provision of Rs 8,781 crore has been increased to Rs 11,391 crore. To protect farmers from price fluctuations in the market, the government had started the Price Support Scheme. In the year 2022-23, a budget of Rs 47 crore was received for this scheme. It has come down to Rs 40 crore in the revised estimates of the current financial year and no provision has been made for it in the next financial year. The government had made a provision of Rs 800 crore (revised Rs 446 crore) in the last budget for the distribution of pulses in the states. But this time even this scheme has not received the budget. The revised estimate of Rs 2200 crore for PM-ASHA has been reduced to Rs 1737 crore in the next financial year. This time a budget of Rs 729 crore has been kept for Kisan Sampada Yojana, which was Rs 923 crore last time. A provision of Rs 955 crore was made in the last budget for the scheme of forming 10 thousand FPOs in the country, which was revised to only Rs 450 crore. It has been increased to Rs 582 crore in the budget.

Despite the noise about natural farming, only Rs 100 crore is estimated to be spent for it out of the budget of Rs 459 crore allocated in the current financial year. Rs 365.64 crore has been kept for this in the next budget. The Finance Minister said that through self-help groups, the government has helped about one crore women to become Lakhpati Didi. Taking inspiration from this success, the target of Lakhpati Didi has been increased from Rs 2 crore to Rs 3 crore. A provision of Rs 500 crore has been made in the budget for the Drone Didi scheme. The Finance Minister said that the Central Government is close to achieving the target of building three crore houses in rural areas under the PM Awas Yojana. Keeping in view the housing needs, two crore more houses will be built in the next five years. The government has increased the budget of the Rural Development Ministry to Rs 1.77 lakh crore for 2024-25 from Rs 1.57 lakh crore last year, an increase of about 12 per cent. However, this is only three percent more than the revised estimate of Rs 1.71 lakh crore.

A provision of Rs 7,447 crore has been made in the interim budget for Krishi Unnati Yojana. The revised estimate for the current financial year is Rs 6,378 crore while the budget estimate was Rs 7,066 crore. Items like edible oil-oil palm and oilseeds, integrated development of horticulture, agricultural marketing are included in this scheme. Referring to the achievements of the government in the agriculture sector, the Finance Minister said that under the PM-Kisan Samman Yojana, 11.8 crore farmers are being provided direct financial assistance every year. Crop insurance of four crore farmers has been done. 1361 mandis and 1.8 crore farmers are getting the benefit of eNAM. The Finance Minister said that 38 lakh farmers have benefited from the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana and 10 lakh jobs have been created.

Reduction in subsidy amount

The government has made a provision of Rs 1.64 lakh crore in the interim budget for fertilizer subsidy. This is Rs 1.75 lakh crore in the current financial year budget and Rs 1.89 lakh crore in the revised estimate. In this, urea subsidy is Rs 1.19 lakh crore which is Rs 1,28,593 crore in the revised estimate of the current financial year. Nutrient based subsidy is Rs 60,300 crore in the revised estimates for the current financial year while it has been kept at Rs 45,000 crore for the coming financial year. Rs 2,05,250 crore has been kept in the budget for 2024-25 for food subsidy. This is Rs 2,12,332 crore in the revised estimates of the current financial year.