The agriculture sector found a major mention in Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget speech. In fact, the minister started her speech with agriculture and called the sector as the first engine of development.
In total, the budget speech announced nine missions or programmes just focused on agriculture. These include Prime Minister Dhan-Dhanya Krishi Yojana that will cover 100 districts with low crop productivity, or the 6-year mission for atmanirbharta in pulses, national mission on high yielding seeds, mission for cotton productivity and a programme for vegetables and fruits.
The announcements are an acknowledgement of the fact that agriculture is one of the few sectors that has seen a stable growth and has been a major driver of India’s economic development. However, in terms of money allocation, the department of agriculture and farmers welfare saw a decrease of three per cent when compared to the revised estimates of 2024-25.
At the same time, farmers in the country have been facing heavy distress and hopefully this budget will target ways on improving their incomes and minimising losses.