New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced a Rs 1.52 lakh crore allocation for agriculture and allied sectors in 2024-25, outlining a comprehensive plan to boost research, promote sustainable farming, enhance oilseed and pulse production and integrate technology in the agricultural landscape.
In her Budget speech, Sitharaman emphasised the need for a thorough review of the agriculture research setup to enhance productivity and develop climate-resilient crop varieties.
“Our government will undertake a comprehensive review of the agriculture research set up to bring the focus on raising productivity and developing climate resilient varieties,” the finance minister said.
The research funding will be challenge-based and open to private sector
participation, with domain experts overseeing the conduct of research.
Sitharaman announced that farmers will soon have access to 109 new high-yielding, climate-resilient varieties across 32 field and horticulture crops.
To boost self-sufficiency in crucial crops, the minister revealed plans for focused missions on pulses and oilseeds, aimed at strengthening their production, storage, and marketing infrastructure.
“As announced in the interim Budget, a strategy is being put in place to achieve ‘atmanirbharta’ for oil seeds, such as mustard, groundnut, sesame, soybean, and sunflower,” Sitharaman said.
The government’s emphasis on research and crop diversification comes alongside a push for sustainable farming practices.
Sitharaman announced an initiative to bring 1 crore farmers into natural farming over the next two years, supported by certification and branding efforts.
In a move to modernise the sector, she outlined plans to implement Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in agriculture, covering farmers and their lands in three years. This initiative includes digital crop surveys and the creation of farmer and land registries.
“In the current fiscal, the government will conduct a digital crop survey for the Kharif season using the DPI in 400 districts.
The details of 6 crore farmers and their lands will be brought into the farmer and land registries,” Sitharaman said.