Special care given to farmers, chemical free natural farming will be promoted with drones

Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman presented the budget today, February 1, in which she made several important announcements related to farmers. The Finance Minister said that inclusive growth is the priority of the government which includes farmers for paddy, kharif and rabi crops. Presenting the budget, Nirmala Sitharaman said that the procurement of wheat in Rabi 2021-22 and the estimated purchase of paddy in Kharif 2021-22 will include 1208 lakh metric tonnes of wheat and paddy from 163 lakh farmers.

Digital and Hi-Tech Services for Farmers, Finance Minister said that a new scheme will be launched in PPP mode under which digital and Hi-tech services will be provided to the farmers. For this, public sector research and extension institutions as well as private agricultural technology companies and stakeholders in the agricultural value chain will be involved. Start-up funds for agriculture and rural enterprise, providing IT based support to FPOs will be included.

Emphasizing on the start-up system in the agriculture sector, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman said that NABARD will provide assistance for mixed capital funds created under co-investment model. The objective of this fund will be to ‘finance start-ups related to agriculture and rural enterprises suitable for agricultural product value chain’. The activities of these start-ups include, inter alia, providing decentralized machinery to the farmers on rental basis at the farm level,

Ken Betwa Link Projects Presenting the budget, the Finance Minister said, “The Ken-Betwa Link Project will be implemented at an estimated cost of Rs 44,605 ​​crore.” The objective of this scheme is to provide irrigation facility in 9.08 lakh hectare agricultural land. Apart from supplying drinking water to 62 lakh people, the project will also provide 103 MW hydro and 27 MW solar power. He said that an allocation of Rs 4,300 crore has been made for this project in the Revised Estimates 2021-22 and Rs 1,400 crore in 2022-23.

Kisan Drones, Finance Minister said that the use of ‘Kisan Drones’ will be promoted for assessing agricultural crops, digitizing land documents, spraying pesticides and nutrients. Chemical Free Natural Farming, the budget has also focused on natural farming without using chemicals. Chemical-free natural farming will be promoted across the country, in the first phase, special attention will be given to farmers’ lands falling under five km wide corridors adjacent to river Ganga.