Budget accords top priority to crop productivity and climate resilience

However, the budget proposals were not matched with funds, a reading of the allocations shows.

The government will undertake a comprehensive review of the agriculture research system and focus on raising productivity and releasing climate resilient varieties, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her budget speech. Funding, she added, will be provided in “challenge mode", including to the private sector. 

As part of this plan, 109 high-yielding and climate-resilient varieties of 32 crops will be released for cultivation.

Listing “agriculture productivity and climate resilience" as one of the nine priority areas in India’s journey towards Viksit Bharat, the budget proposed to initiate 10 million farmers into natural farming practices within the next two years. These farmers will receive certification and branding support. To promote natural farming, 10,000 bio-input resource centres will be set up.

Strategy for self-sufficiency

The budget also proposed to put in place a strategy to ensure self-sufficiency in pulses and oilseeds production where India is heavily dependent on imports. It also proposed to develop large- scale vegetable clusters next to major consumption centres—a response to increasing volatility in the prices of perishables in recent months.

Another major announcement of the budget was to set in motion a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in agriculture. This will include digital crop surveys in 400 districts. Sixty million farmers and their lands will be part of a digital registry. This plan also includes issuing Kisan Credit Cards to farmers in five states.

Despite the importance accorded to research in the budget speech, the monetary allocation appears muted. The Department of Agriculture Research and Education (DARE) under the farm ministry has been provided ₹9,941 crore (budget estimate or BE). This is only a marginal increase from the ₹9,877 crore spent during 2023-24 (revised estimates or RE).

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The budget for apex research institutions which include the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), central agricultural universities and the National Academy for Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) is ₹7,103 crore for 2024-25, lower than the ₹7,248 crore spent last year.

There are other schemes beyond the remit of DARE to improve crop productivity—which function by providing farmers with better quality seeds and access to other technologies. These schemes include the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and the Krishionnati Yojana. 

For these schemes too, the increase in monetary allocation is paltry -- from ₹14,216 crore in 2023-24 (BE) to ₹15,000 crore in 2024-25 (BE).

For the National Mission on Natural Farming, the budget allocated ₹366 crore, lower than the BE allocation of ₹459 crore last year. In 2023-24, only ₹100 crore was spent on the scheme.

Modest increase

Overall, the budget for agriculture and allied sectors, including on research, fisheries and animal husbandry and dairying, saw a modest 6% increase, from ₹1.31 trillion in 2023-24 (BE) to ₹1.39 trillion in 2024-25 (BE).

A major policy challenge is to reduce subsidies and increase investments in agriculture, but the budget did not offer a roadmap, said Avinash Kishore, senior research fellow at the Delhi office of the International Food Policy Research Institute.

“The allocations in the budget follow a calories and area approach (crops like cereals and foodgrains which command a higher share in cultivable area) and little to offer for high value produce like fruit, vegetables, livestock and dairy where the growth in agriculture is coming from," Kishore added.

He also said that the largest cash transfer scheme in India, PM-KISAN (under which land-owning farmers receive ₹6,000 every year), has seen no increase in allocation in 2024-25 ( ₹60,000 crore in 2024-25, same as the year before). 

“The scheme will have unintended consequences. Firstly, rural households will doubt the effectiveness of all cash transfer schemes which are not indexed to inflation (as the annual benefit has not been raised in five years since inception). Secondly, there is no evaluation of how the scheme has impacted agricultural outcomes. This money may have been better spent elsewhere, particularly to fund investments (in irrigation, research etc)."

The budget was presented on the back of lower farm sector growth, estimated at 1.4% in 2023-24, a steep decline from the 4.7% growth in the previous year, and farmer protests asking for a legal guarantee to minimum support prices.

“What is striking about the budgets for agriculture in the BJP/NDA governments over the past several years are the hyped-up statements and announcements on the one hand and the declining financial provisions for particular schemes and for farmers in the country on the other hand," said Kiran Vissa, co-convenor of Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, a policy and advocacy body for farmers.