Farmers harvest spinach from a field in New Delhi on February 1, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has termed the agriculture sector as the first engine of growth and announced schemes such as the Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana–a scheme that is likely to benefit 1.7 crore farmers in 100 districts with low crop production–for the sector in the Budget presented in Parliament on Saturday. Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the budget will help in all-round development of the farm sector. The farmers’ organisations, however, are unhappy with the announcements and said the budget will lead to further rise in the input costs involved in farming.

The allocation to the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has come down by ₹ 3,905.05 crore when compared to the revised estimate of 2024-25. The allocation for the next financial year is ₹ 1,27,290.16 crore. In the revised estimates of 2024-25, the allocation for the Ministry was ₹1,31,195.21 crore. In the last budget, it was ₹ 1,22,528.77 crore. The main decrease is in the allocation towards the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, the coveted crop insurance scheme. In this budget the decrease in allocation for the PMFBY is ₹3,621.73 crore. The Centre has been claiming that more States have joined the scheme. In the last revised estimates, the scheme got ₹15,864 crore while in this budget, the allocation is ₹12,242.27 crore.

The Fertilisers Department has also seen a cut in allocations, which is likely to impact the fertilisers subsidy. This year, the allocation is ₹1,56,502.44 crore, a decrease of about ₹26,500.85 crore than the last financial year’s revised estimates of ₹1,83,003.29 crore. In the last budget, the Department received an allocation of ₹1,64,150.81 crore.

The Minister also announced that the loan limit under the Modified Interest Subvention Scheme will be enhanced from ₹3 lakh to ₹5 lakh for loans taken through Kisan Credit Cards that facilitate short-term loans for 7.7 crore farmers, fishermen, and dairy farmers. The Minister also announced the launch of a six-year-long mission for “Aatmanirbharta (self reliance) in Pulses” with a special focus on tur, urad and masoor varieties of pulses. The Minister has allocated ₹100 crore to establish Makhana Board in Bihar to improve production, processing, value addition, and marketing of makhana (fox seeds).

Fisheries and Animal Husbandry departments will get an additional allocation of about ₹1,500 crore compared to the last revised estimates. “To enhance India’s competitiveness in the global seafood market, I propose to reduce basic customs duty from 30% to 5% on Frozen Fish Paste (Surimi) for manufacture and export of its analogue products. I also propose to reduce BCD from 15% to 5% on fish hydrolysate for manufacture of fish and shrimp feeds,” the Minister said.

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha said in a statement that the budget is an attack on farmers and workers. The SKM said the budget neglected the demand for legalised minimum support price as per M.S. Swaminathan’s formula and a comprehensive scheme to waive farm loans. The SKM also decided to burn the copies of the budget as a mark of protest on February 5.