Budget for agri raised by 74% in 4.6 years: Radha Mohan Singh

Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Radha Mohan Singh said on Monday that in the last four and half years the budgetary allocation to the agriculture sector has been raised by 74 per cent to increase productivity, reduce cost, and prioritise crops with high value. He added that he is confident of doubling the income of farmers by 2022.

"Corpus funds have been created: such as Rs 5,000-crore micro irrigation fund, Rs 10,081 crore for Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund, Rs 7,550 Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF), Rs 2,450 crore for development of animal husbandry infrastructure, and Rs 2,000 crore for the development of Rural Agricultural Market Infrastructure," the said minister in a written statement in Parliament.

He further said that during the last four and a half years, several steps have been taken in farmers' interest. He said farmers' welfare is the primary goal of this government's agricultural policy and for its implementation, "increasing employment in agricultural sector" and "enhancing the income of farmers" are the important factors

Many policy reforms have been carried out with the above financial provisions.

For the first time, Soil Health Card has been being provided to farmers on the basis of a national standard, e-NAM has been started to help farmers receive fair value of their produce and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna to cover the maximum risk of farmers' crops based on the scale of finance by removing capping on minimum premium.

In the last 4 years, agricultural credit flow has increased by 57 per cent to Rs 11 lakh crore and interest subsidy has also been increased by one and half times to Rs 15,000 crore.

"To increase the income of the farmers, 546 Farmer Producer Organisations have been constituted by the Small Farmers' Agri-Business Consortium besides State governments and FPOs of NABARD. For landless farmers, the Joint Liability Group has been increased from 6.72 lakh to 27.49 lakh.

In its efforts to double the income of the farmers by 2022, Minimum Support Prices of 24 crops have been raised by 1.5 times of the production cost, thereby fulfilling the government's promise. There has been an unprecedented increase of upto 15 times in purchase by the government through various schemes.

In order to make Indian agriculture competitive a new export policy been formulated and there has been 95 percent increase in export value of marine products, 84 percent rice, 77 percent fresh fruits, 43percent fresh vegetables and 38percent spices.

"Through advanced research in agriculture, 795 new crops with biofortification and resilient to climate change properties have been released to the farmers thereby enabling increase in productivity and enhancing the income of farmers,"the minister said.

Besides crops, special attention has been paid to horticulture crops and agricultural related activities. For the promotion of indigenous breeds in the Indian climate, special emphasis is being given to Rashtriya Gokul Mission, sex-sorted semen, and the development of dairy infrastructure.

The success of the government's plan and policies is reflected in 2017-18 with record food grain production of 284.83 million tonnes, record horticulture production of 306.82 million tonnes, pulses production increased by 40 percent to 25.23 million tons.

Credit Flow Doubled

Agricultural credit flow has increased by 57 per cent to Rs 11 lakh crore and interest subsidy has also been increased by one and half times to Rs 15,000 crore, he said.