Opting for public investment in agriculture over sops to farmers, Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman made several low-key but significant announcements in Budget 2024-25, while increasing overall allocation by 8.5% to Rs 1.52 lakh crore. In particular, the focus on climate adaptation, post-harvest management and digitilisation of land records is long overdue.
Given that extreme weather events — droughts, floods, heat waves and cold spells — have increased in frequency and duration, maintaining a resilient food system requires cultivars that can withstand a combination of various abiotic and biotic stress factors such as higher temperatures, increased pest infestation and changes in soil pH. Farmers have so far struggled to adapt in incremental ways, or have changed land use altogether (for example, apple orchards being given over to vegetable cultivation).
The urgent need for adaptive measures makes the promise of 109 high-yielding and ‘climate-proof’ varieties of 32 crops more than welcome. ‘Challenge mode’ funding with clearly laid out targets for the public and private sector will broadbase research aimed at mitigating climate-induced crop loss, a significant contributory factor to food inflation in recent years.
The proposed initiation of 10 million farmers into organic farming over two years can also be seen from the perspective of climate change. On the one hand, desperate farmers resort to agrochemicals to prevent crop loss, but on the other, natural farming increases the resilience of soil and crops and reduces green house gas (GHG) emissions. Taking a pragmatic approach, the FM has sought to invest in certification and branding of organic produce so as to assure farmers of a ready market.
Farm economics is further impacted by lack of post-harvest management facilities and marketing linkages. Limited storage and primary processing infrastructure results in massive wastage of horticultural crops. While the FM has announced that the government will promote post-harvest operations and marketing, farm-to-fork chains are best managed by the private sector. The government’s role is to incentivise them to invest in storage and processing facilities.
Utilising Digital Public Infratructure (DPI) for land records will be a big step forward in a country where there is extreme pressure on land. Geospatial surveys (GIS) can promote effective land administration through cadastral mapping (geographically referenced information on ownership and boundaries of land), thereby removing ambiguity about land ownership. Issuing ‘Bhu-Adhaar’ cards to landowners will prevent encroachment, disputes and conflicts over land, which are a major source of litigation in the country. DPI can also be deployed to monitor natural resources, promote sustainable land use and enable crop surveys, vital for crop protection, risk mitigation and yield estimates.
Self-sufficiency in pulses and oilseeds has been a long-standing target of the government, and has been reiterated in the budget. While progress was made in pulses in the five years from 2018-19 to 2022-23, production declined sharply thereafter due to climatic factors, resulting in a steep rise in imports. Likewise, while oilseed production has increased somewhat, India still remains the world’s top vegetable oil importer.
Interestingly, the FM did not mention palm oil (imported from Indonesia) in the list of oilseeds to be promoted. She promised a strategy to incentivise traditional oilseeds like mustard, groundnut and sesame, as well as soyabean and sunflower.
The absence of sops has prompted the Opposition to describe the budget as a ‘raw deal’ for farmers, but — as studies have shown — investment in agriculture benefits farmers far more than sops.
Bhavdeep Kang is a senior journalist with 35 years of experience in working with major newspapers and magazines. She is now an independent writer and author
