 "Govt's food security programme to cost $21 billion a year: Paswan")
If the Economic Survey serves as an indicator, then the country's agriculture sector should not have very high hopes from Budget 2017.
The Survey, tabled in Parliament today, only makes a passing reference to the country's farm sector and its performance in 2016-17, projecting its growth to be around 4.1 per cent, same as the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO)'s figure a few weeks back.
However, it does warn the government about the impact demonetisation might have had on the supply of some commodities, such as milk, sugar, potatoes and onions and calls for vigilance on the part of the government to prevent a repeat of 2015-16, when prices of pulses flared up.
The Survey does not list any path-breaking or innovative ideas from the sector's point of view, and instead focusses on already existing initiatives and schemes of the Narendra Modi government.
It says farm credit growth has been impressive and also advocates reforming the APMC market laws, something that successive central governments have been harping about since long.
On the challenges facing the sector, the Survey reiterated well-known facts such as how APMCs and stock limits contradict each other.
According to the Survey, protection of intellectual property rights, such as in seeds, remains a challenge.
The chapter in agriculture and food management is tucked into the overall outlook for the economy 2017-18.
Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian's path-breaking report on the pulses sector finds a mention in the Survey merely as a tool to protect the country from any further volatility in pulses. As far as inflation is concerned, food is mentioned as being under control.
The Economic Survey's rather lackluster response could be because of limited data available on the impact of demonetisation and uncertainty about the effect of the weather on the final rabi harvest expected in a month or so.
A clear picture on agriculture could come in the second part of the Survey, which will be out in June-July.
