New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday allocated Rs 1.52 lakh crore for agriculture and allied sectors. The Finance Minister made the announcement in the Union Budget.
It was announced that new 109 high-yielding and climate-resilient varieties of 32 field and horticulture crops are to be released for cultivation. Sitharaman also announced that 10,000 need-based bio-input resource centres will be established and the Centre will assist it.
In the Interim Budget, the government has allocated Rs 1.27 lakh crore budget for the Ministry of Agriculture for 2024-25, marginally higher than the current fiscal.
According to the budget document, the agriculture ministry has been allocated Rs 1,27,469.88 crore for 2024-25 financial year, of which the Department of Agriculture will get Rs 1,17,528.79 crore while the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) Rs 9,941.09 crore. As per the revised estimates of the current fiscal, the Department of Agriculture has been allocated Rs 1,16,788.96 crore while the DARE Rs 9,876.60 crore.
In the Interim Budget which was presented on February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said as many as 11.8 crore farmers were provided financial assistance under the PM KISAN Yojana.
Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is one of the world's largest Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes. Under the PM-KISAN scheme, the government provides a financial benefit of Rs 6,000 per year in three equal four-monthly instalments. The money is transferred into the bank accounts of farmers' families across the country through DBT mode.
Announced in February 2019 in the interim budget, the scheme was effective from December 2018. Sitharama while presenting the interim budget had said the outgo towards food subsidy is pegged at Rs 2.05 lakh crore for 2024-25, down from Rs 2.12 lakh crore in the current fiscal.
She also noted that the government estimates fertilizer subsidy for FY25 at Rs 1.64 lakh crore, down from Rs 1.89 lakh crore in the ongoing financial year.
Food subsidy is provided to meet the difference between the economic cost of foodgrains procured by the government and their sales realisation at the PDS rate called central issue price (CIP) under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and other welfare schemes. Similarly, the Centre provides fertiliser subsidies to manufacturers.
The government fixes the MRP of urea being sold in the market. The difference between the selling price and production cost is provided as a subsidy. A nutrient-based subsidy is also being provided on non-urea fertilisers like DAP and MOP.
