NEW DELHI: As part of her pre-budget consultations with stakeholders, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will meet farmers’ associations and agriculture economists on Friday and seek their suggestions on the policy landscape for the politically and economically crucial sector.
“Ideas and suggestions of stakeholders are thoroughly discussed before budget preparation. It’s a standard procedure and is followed for finalising the budget for all ministries/sectors,” said an official. This time, however, given complaints of farm and rural distress, the agriculture sector will be a crucial component of the budget and will also outline the Modi govt’s strategy for the coming five years.
Promises made in the interim budget may get a concrete shape with more specific allocation, sources said.
Sitharaman had in her interim budget announced that the government will formulate a strategy to make the country self-reliant on edible oils by boosting domestic output of oilseeds, come out with a comprehensive programme to support dairy farmers, and set up five integrated aqua parks and launch new climate resilient scheme for blue economy 2.0 for fisheries development.
“Making India self-reliant in oil seeds such as mustard, groundnut, sesame, soybean, and sunflower is expected to remain a focus area of the budget as India currently has to import a large quantity of edible oils to meet its domestic demand,” said the source. During the 2022-23 marketing year (November-October), India imported nearly 165 lakh tonnes of cooking oils worth almost Rs 1.4 lakh crore.
Multiple farmer welfare measures and promotion of private and public investment in “post-harvest activities” including aggregation, modern storage, efficient supply chains, processing, marketing and branding may also be other focus areas of the budget for the farm sector, said the sources.
