Amidthe coronavirus pandemic when the pace of manufacturing and services sectorcame to a grinding halt, agriculture and allied sectors in India have picked uppace as the country saw the strength of the farm sector.
Thegovernment also took care of a large population of the country related toagriculture and farming and enacted new laws to intensify the winds ofimprovement in the agricultural sector. The Budget 2021-22 is going to bepresented in Parliament on Monday, amid wrangling over agricultural reform.
Insuch a situation, it is expected that the Modi government, which claims to givepriority to the progress of villages, the poor and farmers, will also givepriority to agriculture and rural development in the upcoming Budget.
Accordingto the Economic Review 2020-21, while the industry and services sectors areprojected to fall by 9.6 per cent and 8.8 per cent, respectively, in the currentfinancial year, the growth rate of agriculture and allied sectors can remain at3.4 per cent. The agriculture and allied sectors recorded a growth rate of 3.4per cent at constant prices during FY 2020-21 (first advance estimate).
TheModi government's priority has been to double the income of farmers by 2022 andto develop basic facilities in villages including 'pucca' houses for all thepoor in the country. Therefore, with a view to achieving these goals, thebudgetary allocation of major schemes of agriculture and rural developmentsector can be expected to increase in the upcoming Budget.
Thegovernment will also focus on the scheme to provide short-term agriculturalloans to farmers at affordable interest rates. Other schemes of the agriculturesector, including the Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme, the Prime MinisterAgricultural Irrigation Scheme, can also be given importance in this budget.Agricultural economists point out that along with agriculture, the governmentwill give prominence to the plans of the food processing industry, which willhelp in achieving the goal of doubling the income of farmers.
Majorschemes for the development of villages proved to be very helpful in providingemployment opportunities to the workers migrating from the cities during thecorona period. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme(MGNREGA), in addition to providing employment to the daily wage labourers in thevillages, proved to be crucial in the development of basic infrastructure inthe villages, which was called an opportunity in disaster and under theself-sufficient India package.
Expertssay that in the upcoming Budget also, other rural development schemes includingMNREGA can be increased. The budgetary allocation of MNREGA was Rs 61,500 crorein 2020-21, but under the self-sufficient package in the corona era, anadditional allocation of Rs 40,000 crore was made for the scheme.
Farmershave been agitating for more than two months on the borders of Delhi to repealthe new agricultural laws and to demand a legal guarantee for the purchase ofcrops at the minimum support price (MSP). Agricultural experts point out thatMSP is a big issue in the farmers' movement, so some announcement can beexpected in the Budget regarding MSP as well.
UnionFinance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the General Budget of theupcoming financial year 2021-22 in Parliament on Monday.