Satya Rajput, Raipur. Dr. Girish Chandel, Vice Chancellor of Indira Gandhi Agricultural University, described the Union Budget 2024 presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as a developmental, inclusive and employment-oriented budget and called it a budget promoting agriculture and rural development in the country.
Dr. Chandel said that the Finance Minister has allocated Rs 1.52 lakh crore for agriculture and allied sectors for the financial year 2024-25, which is Rs 27 thousand crore more than last year’s budget. In this way, the budget of agriculture has been increased by about 20 percent. This will promote the development of agriculture and allied sectors and will create new employment opportunities in rural areas.
He said that 1 crore farmers will be introduced to natural farming in the coming years. The government plans to enhance production, storage and marketing to achieve self-sufficiency in pulses and oilseeds. The budget has emphasized research and development in the agriculture sector to focus on development of climate resilient varieties. New high-yielding and climate resilient varieties of 32 agricultural crops and 109 horticultural crops will be released for cultivation by farmers in the next 2 years. Significant funds will be allocated for research and development initiatives with special focus on enhancing production, storage and marketing of pulses and oilseeds. The initiative aims to achieve “self-sufficiency” in oilseeds such as mustard, groundnut, sesame, soybean and sunflower. To enhance the supply chain of vegetables, the budget proposes to develop large-scale clusters for vegetable production near major consumption centres. Large-scale clusters for vegetable production will be developed close to major consumption centres to promote farmer producer organisations, cooperatives and startups for supply chains of vegetables including collection, storage and marketing. Digital crop survey for Kharif will be conducted in 400 districts in FY 2025, integrating 6 crore farmers and their land into farmer and land registry.
Facility for issuance of people-support based Kisan Credit Cards will be provided in five states. Recognising the potential in aquaculture, the Budget has provided financial assistance for setting up a network of nucleus breeding centres for shrimp broodstocks. It also said that financing of shrimp farming, processing and export will be facilitated through NABARD.
Dr. Chandel said that the budget has announced a provision of Rs 2.66 lakh crore for rural development, which can benefit the rural demand for automobiles – especially entry-to-level two-wheelers and tractors. Apart from this, the government has announced a three-year plan to facilitate digital public infrastructure in partnership with the state government. This digital infrastructure will provide important information to farmers about weather, crop advisory services and market prices. Apart from this, many steps have been taken in this budget to connect the youth with employment, in which a Prime Minister’s package of five schemes has been given for 4.1 crore youth with a central outlay of Rs 2 lakh crore. Under this package, more than four crore youth will be provided employment, skills and other opportunities in the coming five years. 1 crore youth will be skilled in five years. 1 crore youth will be given an allowance of Rs 5 thousand per month for 12 months during internship in the country’s 500 top companies. The loan limit under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana has been increased from 10 lakh to 20 lakh. Along with this, the government has also announced to provide education loan at 3 percent interest rate, which will create new employment opportunities for the youth.