Operation Green: #Budget2018 plants ‘agricultural’ seeds for ‘doubling’ farmers’ income by 2022

New Delhi, February 1: Empowering farmers and rural economy is the main plot of #Budget2018. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the budget today stressing on various fields like agriculture, health, farmer’s welfare, women, business etc. Budget2018 is packed with policies and schemes with an aim to boost agricultural sector in every aspect.

 Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while announcing Budget-2018 gave a clarion call to double up farmer’s income by 2022. He said that “Our emphasis is on generating higher incomes for farmers. We consider agriculture as an enterprise and want to help farmers produce more from the same land parcel at a lesser cost and simultaneously realize higher prices for their produce.”

 

Budget-2018 has reserved Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all hitherto unannounced crops of Kharif at least at one and half times of their production cost.

The government announced institutional credit for the agricultural sector to Rs.11 Lakh Crore for 2018-19 which is higher than last year which was Rs.10 Lakh Crore.

Taking Government’s vision ahead, the Finance Minister, in Budget 2018-19, announced the launching of ‘Operation Greens’ to address price instability of perishable commodities like potatoes, tomatoes and onions, at an outlay of Rs. 500 crore.

‘Operation Greens’, on the lines of ‘Operation Flood’, to promote Farmer Producers Organizations (FPOs), agri-logistics, processing facilities and professional management in the sector. Also, 100% deduction in respect of profits to Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs), having turnover up to Rs. 100 Crore, for a period of 5 years from FY 2018-19, in order to encourage professionalism in post-harvest value addition in agriculture.

 

Pushing ‘Organic Farming’, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and Village Producers’ Organizations (VPOs) in large clusters, preferably of 1000 hectares each, will be encouraged. Women Self Help Groups (SHGs) will also be encouraged to take up organic agriculture in clusters under National Rural Livelihood Programme. Also, a sum of Rs.200 Crore has been allocated to support the organized cultivation of highly specialized medicinal and aromatic plants and aid small and cottage industries that manufacture perfumes, essential oils and other associated products.

Upgrading Rural Haats into Gramin Agricultural Markets (GrAMs), physical infrastructure will be strengthened using MGNREGA and other Government Schemes and would be electronically linked to e-NAM and exempted from regulations of APMCs. Agri-Market Infrastructure Fund with an amount of Rs.2000 Crore will be set up for developing and upgrading agricultural marketing infrastructure in the 22000 Grameen Agricultural Markets (GrAMs) and 585 APMCs.

 

With an aim to promote the establishment of specialized agro-processing financial institutions, Budget-2018 has doubled up the fund allocation from Rs.715 Crore in RE 2017-18 to Rs.1400 Crore in BE 2018-19. Budget 2018 aims to boost food processing sector under Prime Minister Krishi Sampada Yojana.

Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Sector to get helping hand as Budget-2018 extends the facility of Kisan Credit Cards (KCC). Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FAIDF) for fisheries sector and an Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) for financing infrastructure requirement of animal husbandry sector will be set up under Rs. 10,000 Crores.

 

Promoting ‘Bamboo’ as ‘Green Gold’ restructured National Bamboo Mission will be launched under Rs.1290 Crores. With a focus on linking bamboo growers with consumers; creation of facilities for collection, aggregation, processing, marketing, MSMEs, skill building and brand building, Budget-2018 contributes in generating additional income for farmers, employment opportunities for skilled and unskilled youth especially in rural areas.

Also to combat the deadly air pollution groped to our capital, special Scheme will be implemented to support the efforts of the governments of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and the NCT of Delhi to address air pollution and to subsidize machinery required for in-situ management of crop residue.