The government unveiled a raft of measures to boost agriculture in the Union budget on Wednesday, announcing that the farm sector is expected to grow by 4.1% in the next fiscal year, aided by a good monsoon. Here are the top announcements:
Finance minister Arun Jaitley announced that the farm sector is expected to grow by 4.1% in the next fiscal year. (HT Photo)
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• Farm credit target fixed at Rs 10 lakh crore
• Crop Insurance to spread over 40% area cropped
• Dairy processing infrastructure fund to be set up under Nabard, with fund of 8,000 crore
• A model law on contract farming will be circulated among states for consultation.
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• Assistance of upto Rs 75 lakh for cleaning and packaging of farmer produce
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• Assistance of upto Rs 75 lakh for cleaning and packaging of farmer produce
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• Nabard to be supported to create 63,000 functional primary agricultural credit societies at an estimated cost of Rs 1,900 crore
• Areas under summer and winter crops to grow
• Issuance of soil health cards have gathered momentum, will setup a mini lab in krishi vigyan kendras
• Computerisation of Nabard to help small, marginal farmers to ensure seamless flow of credit
• Focus on small and marginal farmers, especially in underserved areas such as the Northeast and Kashmir.
Dhrubo Jyoti is Deputy Executive Editor at Hindustan Times, where they help oversee the newspaper’s daily news and opinion coverage. They are part of the leadership team of the newspaper and their daily responsibilities include news selection, commissioning and editing, apart from planning and executing special projects. Apart from this, they write on national affairs at the intersection of caste and sexuality, with a focus on elections, politics and the lifeworlds of the caste marginalised. Formally trained in physics from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata and Bose Institute, Kolkata, they made a switch to studying journalism from the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai. Over the past decade at Hindustan Times, they have worked at the National Desk, Page 1 team, Integrated Copy Desk and Special Stories Team, before running the opinion page as views editor for two years, and then moving back as Senior Editor of News Operations. In the past 12 years, they have reported on numerous national and state elections, specialising on caste-informed coverage of major moments in India’s history, and focussing on leading investigations into government accountability and social inequities. Their narrative non-fiction work aims to put Dalit voices at the core of India’s LGBTQIA+ movements.
