New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday (February 1) during her speech launching Budget 2022 announced a major stimulus and a series of other decisions to benefit the country’s agriculture and livestock sectors, chemical-free natural farming, public-private partnerships (PPPs) to provide high-tech and digital services to farmers across the country in FY2022-23.
Founder of the Ritwik Bahuguna Roots Foundation and Chief Commercial Officer Wazir Advisors said the budget announcements address “a number of priorities related to of agriculture, which can be broadly linked to our 2030 Sustainable Development Goals for Responsible Production and Consumption”.
“The FM mentioned that chemical-free agriculture should be promoted across the country. This is an important step. In a country where quantity has taken precedence over quality all these years, this is a welcome move.
However, adoption may require specific political support. – such as subsidies for organic inputs, including fertilizers and pesticides. Several internationally banned pesticides are still in use in many parts of the country.
There is also a need to share information by mobilizing self-help groups and grassroots organizations in this effort,” he added. It also found that post-harvest value creation for key products requires specific production-related incentives for large-scale food processing.
INR 10.9 billion worth of spending has been approved for the food processing sector under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. “Initially, the government may consider increasing the payout. Currently, it is largely spread across the largest companies, and SMEs that need funds to scale have not received enough support.
In addition, packaging, which is an important aspect of post-harvest value creation, and branding are not adequately covered by the system. The packaging industry needs a boost and targeted allocations need to be made,” he added.
Bahuguna also found that there is a need to create Brand India for a number of our core products and this requires dedicated marketing and product development programs.