Finance
By: shree1news, 31 JAN 2021
New Delhi: Amid the coronavirus pandemic when the pace of manufacturing and services sector came to a grinding halt, agriculture and allied sectors in India have picked up pace because the nation saw the strength of the farm sector.
The government also took care of a large population of the nation associated to agriculture and farming and enacted new laws to intensify the winds of improvement within the agricultural sector. The Budget 2021-22 is going to be presented in Parliament on Monday, amid wrangling over agricultural reform.
In such a situation, it’s expected that the Modi government, which claims to give priority to the progress of villages, the poor and farmers, will also give priority to agriculture and rural improvement in the upcoming Budget.
Based on the Economic Review 2020-21, whereas the industry and services sectors are projected to fall by 9.6 per cent and 8.8 per cent, respectively, within the present financial year, the growth rate of agriculture and allied sectors can remain at 3.4 per cent. The agriculture and allied sectors recorded a growth rate of 3.4 per cent at constant prices during FY 2020-21 (first advance estimate).
The Modi government’s priority has been to double the income of farmers by 2022 and to develop basic facilities in villages including ‘pucca’ houses for all the poor in the nation. Due to this fact, with a view to achieving these targets, the budgetary allocation of main schemes of agriculture and rural improvement sector may be expected to extend within the upcoming Budget.
A senior official of the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare mentioned that farmers’ awareness about all of the schemes of agriculture sector together with Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is repeatedly growing and the advantages of these schemes are beginning to be seen at the ground level.
The government will also deal with the scheme to provide short-term agricultural loans to farmers at affordable rates of interest. Other schemes of the agriculture sector, together with the Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme, the Prime Minister Agricultural Irrigation Scheme, can be given significance on this budget. Agricultural economists point out that along with agriculture, the government will give prominence to the plans of the food processing industry, which can help in achieving the goal of doubling the income of farmers.
Major schemes for the development of villages proved to be very useful in providing employment opportunities to the employees migrating from the cities during the corona period. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA), along with providing employment to the each day wage labourers within the villages, proved to be essential within the improvement of primary infrastructure within the villages, which was referred to as a possibility in disaster and under the self-sufficient India package.
Experts say that in the upcoming Budget also, different rural improvement schemes including MNREGA may be increased. The budgetary allocation of MNREGA was Rs 61,500 crore in 2020-21, however under the self-sufficient package in the corona period, an additional allocation of Rs 40,000 crore was made for the scheme.
Farmers have been agitating for more than two months on the borders of Delhi to repeal the new agricultural laws and to demand a legal guarantee for the purchase of crops at the minimum support price (MSP). Agricultural experts point out that MSP is a big issue within the farmers’ movement, so some announcement can be expected in the Budget relating to MSP as well.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the General Budget of the upcoming financial year 2021-22 in Parliament on Monday.
Source:A-N
