Govt provides 30% higher budget allocation to agriculture for FY21

Barring fertiliser and chemicals sector, the government has provided higher budget allocation for agriculture, and its allied activities as well as to the food and food processing sector for 2020-21.

For the agriculture and farmers welfare ministry, the government has provided 30 per cent increase in the fund allocation at Rs 1,42,761.58 crore for the next fiscal as against the revised estimate of Rs 1,09,750.17 crore for the ongoing financial year, according to the budget document.

Of the total allocation, maximum of Rs 75,000 crore has been allocated for the government's flagship scheme PM-Kisan for the 2020-21 fiscal, followed by Rs 15,695 crore for the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and Rs 2,000 crore for Price Stabilisation Scheme (PSS).

That apart, the government has allocated Rs 600 crore for promoting farm mechanisation, Rs 500 crore each for PM-Asha scheme and setting up of 10,000 Farmers Producers Companies (FPOs), while Rs 220 crore for PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (farmers pension scheme) for the next fiscal.

The allocation for the ambitious PM-Kisan scheme, under which Rs 6,000 is given in three equal instalments to each beneficiary farmer annually, has been kept at Rs 75,000 crore for the 2020-21 fiscal, higher than Rs 54,370.15 crore provided in the revised estimate for this year.

The allocation has been trimmed for the current year from the initial estimate of Rs 75,000 crore in view of implementation hurdles and lack of interest shown by some states like West Bengal. In case of PMFBY, the government has allocated higher funds at Rs 15,695 crore for the next fiscal compared to the revised estimate of Rs 13,640.85 crore for the current fiscal.

For agriculture and research development, the government has provided Rs 8,362.58 crore budget for the 2020-21 fiscal, up from Rs 7,846.17 crore in the revised estimate.

Realising the potential of the allied farm activities like dairy can help provide supplementary income to farmers, the government has increased the allocation for animal husbandry, livestock, dairy and fishery ministry to Rs 4,114.13 crore for the next fiscal from the revised estimate of Rs 3,490 crore.

Of which, Rs 3,289 crore has been allocated for animal husbandry, livestock and dairy, while Rs 825 crore for promoting fishery sector in the next fiscal.

For the food processing ministry, the government has increased allocation to Rs 1,232.94 crore for the next fiscal from the revised estimate of Rs 1,042.79 crore. For the food and consumer affairs ministry, the allocation has been increased by six per cent to Rs 1,15,569.68 crore for the next fiscal from the revised estimate of Rs 1,08,688.35 crore.

However, for the fertiliser and chemicals ministry, the budget allocation has been reduced to Rs 71,563.34 crore for the next fiscal from the revised estimate of Rs 80,405.18 crore.