Agri stocks gain on govt's emphasis on agriculture sector in budget

Five agri stocks rose by 0.38% to 4.03% at 11:22 IST on BSE after the finance minister in the budget 2018-19 laid emphasis on agriculture and farmers.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 245.32 points, or 0.68%, to 36,210.34.

Dhanuka Agritech, Jain Irrigation Systems, Kaveri Seed Company, Monsanto India, and Shakti Pumps rose by 0.38% to 4.03%.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitely in budget presentation said that Budget 2018-19 will focus on agriculture and rural economy. The government's emphasis is on generating higher income for farmers. Arun Jaitley wants farmers to earn 1.5 times on their produce. Prime Minister aims to double farm income by 2022, he added.

National Agriculture Market (NAM) is a pan-India electronic trading portal which networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities, he added. 470 APMCs have been connected to eNAM so far. Government to look at cluster-based growth model in agriculture, he added.

Food processing sector growing at 8% per annum; allocation being doubled to 14 billion rupees in 2018-2019.

Cultivation of horticulture crops in clusters can boost production and marketing, he said. Agri-market Development Fund with a corpus of Rs 2000 crore to be set up for developing agricultural markets. Operation green along lines of Op flood and corpus of Rs 500 crore is allotted for the same.

Budget allocation to the food processing industry will be increased from Rs 715 crore to Rs 1400 crore. Finance Minister said that government will look at cluster development model for horticulture & agri crops. Grameen Agricultural Market (GRAM) will provide farmers a means to sell directly to buyers, he added.

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