• Contact us
  • Advertising Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
Monday, June 16, 2025
32 °c
Agartala
enewstime
  • Home
  • News
    • Northeast
    • National
    • International
    • Tripura News
  • Sports
    Club WC: Botafogo beat Sounders; Palmeiras and FC Porto play out goalless draw

    Club WC: Botafogo beat Sounders; Palmeiras and FC Porto play out goalless draw

    Markram’s 136 absolutely as good as any other WC final winning knocks: Ponting

    Markram’s 136 absolutely as good as any other WC final winning knocks: Ponting

    Club WC: PSG crush Atletico Madrid to get off to flying start

    Club WC: PSG crush Atletico Madrid to get off to flying start

    England Tests great chance for young Indian team to settle and challenge any side: Venkatapathy Raju

    England Tests great chance for young Indian team to settle and challenge any side: Venkatapathy Raju

    Strong Indian contingent departs for Beijing 2025 Para Powerlifting World Cup

    Strong Indian contingent departs for Beijing 2025 Para Powerlifting World Cup

    China's young artistic swimmers make a splash at home World Cup

    China's young artistic swimmers make a splash at home World Cup

    Playing alongside Jadeja is great honour for me, have learnt a lot from him: Kuldeep

    Playing alongside Jadeja is great honour for me, have learnt a lot from him: Kuldeep

    Shubman Gill is fully ready to lead the Indian Test team in England, says Kuldeep Yadav

    Shubman Gill is fully ready to lead the Indian Test team in England, says Kuldeep Yadav

    Madhya Pradesh League: Aman Bhadoriya’s all round show helps Chambal defeat Indore

    Madhya Pradesh League: Aman Bhadoriya’s all round show helps Chambal defeat Indore

  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Health
  • Features
  • TendersNew
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Northeast
    • National
    • International
    • Tripura News
  • Sports
    Club WC: Botafogo beat Sounders; Palmeiras and FC Porto play out goalless draw

    Club WC: Botafogo beat Sounders; Palmeiras and FC Porto play out goalless draw

    Markram’s 136 absolutely as good as any other WC final winning knocks: Ponting

    Markram’s 136 absolutely as good as any other WC final winning knocks: Ponting

    Club WC: PSG crush Atletico Madrid to get off to flying start

    Club WC: PSG crush Atletico Madrid to get off to flying start

    England Tests great chance for young Indian team to settle and challenge any side: Venkatapathy Raju

    England Tests great chance for young Indian team to settle and challenge any side: Venkatapathy Raju

    Strong Indian contingent departs for Beijing 2025 Para Powerlifting World Cup

    Strong Indian contingent departs for Beijing 2025 Para Powerlifting World Cup

    China's young artistic swimmers make a splash at home World Cup

    China's young artistic swimmers make a splash at home World Cup

    Playing alongside Jadeja is great honour for me, have learnt a lot from him: Kuldeep

    Playing alongside Jadeja is great honour for me, have learnt a lot from him: Kuldeep

    Shubman Gill is fully ready to lead the Indian Test team in England, says Kuldeep Yadav

    Shubman Gill is fully ready to lead the Indian Test team in England, says Kuldeep Yadav

    Madhya Pradesh League: Aman Bhadoriya’s all round show helps Chambal defeat Indore

    Madhya Pradesh League: Aman Bhadoriya’s all round show helps Chambal defeat Indore

  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Health
  • Features
  • TendersNew
No Result
View All Result
enewstime
  • Home
  • News
  • Sports
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Health
  • Features
  • Tenders
Home Agriculture

Budget focuses on measures to raise farmers’ incomes

ENEWSTIME Desk by ENEWSTIME Desk
February 4, 2017
in Agriculture, Features
Budget focuses on measures to raise farmers’ incomes
30
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

*GARGI PARSAI

ADVERTISEMENT

The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley named agriculture as one of the 10 important sectors that were the focus ofhis budget for 2017-18. He backed it up with announcements of crucial measures towards raising farmers’ incomes including enhancing credit availability, formulation of a Model Law on Contract Farming to reduce post-harvest losses and setting up of Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund for additional source of income to farmers in dairy sector.

In a major boost to the sector, the Finance Minister raised the availability of credit for farmers to a record Rs. 10 lakh crore. “For a good crop, adequate credit should be available to farmers in time. The target for agricultural credit in 2017-18 has been fixed at a record level of Rs. 10 lakh crores. We will take special efforts to ensure adequate flow of credit to the under serviced areas, the Eastern States and Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

A new Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Fund will be set up to encourage dairying as an additional source of income for farmers. The fund will be under NABARD with a corpus of Rs. 8,000 crores over three years. Initially, the fund will start with a corpus of Rs. 2,000 crores.

Availability of milk processing facility and other infrastructure will benefit the farmers through value addition. A large number of milk processing units set up under the Operation Flood Programme have since become old and obsolete, the Minister observed.

ADVERTISEMENT

Looking to the vagaries of monsoon when 60 per cent of Indian farming is under rain-fed conditions, Mr Jaitley set aside Rs. 9000 crore under the newly-launched Prime Minister’s Fasal Bima Yojna. The coverage of this demand-driven scheme will be increased from 30 per cent of cropped area in 2016-17 to 40 per cent in 2017-18 and 50 per cent in 2018-19. The Budget provision of Rs 5,500 crores for this Yojana in Budget Estimates for 2016-17 was increased to Rs. 13,240 crores in Revised Estimates 2016-17 to settle the arrear claims.

For 2017-18, I have provided a sum of Rs. 9,000 crores. The sum insured under this Yojana has more than doubled from Rs. 69,000 crores in Kharif 2015 to Rs. 1,41,625 crores in Kharif 2016,’’ Mr.Jaitley said. The scheme was launched from April 1, 2016 and is a shift from claim-based insurance scheme to upfront subsidy for premium-based system with minimal burden on farmers.

In addition, farmers will benefit from the 60 days’ interest waiver on loans availed by farmers from the cooperative credit structure as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier.

“The Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) act as the front end for loan disbursements. We will support NABARD for computerisation and integration of all 63,000 functional PACS with the Core Banking System of District Central Cooperative Banks. This will be done in three years at an estimated cost of Rs.1,900 crores, with financial participation from State Governments. This will ensure seamless flow of credit to small and marginal farmers.’’

Referring to the Soil Health Card programme of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Mr. Jaitley said the programme had gathered momentum but the real benefit will accrue to the farmers only when soil samples are tested quickly and the nutrient level of the soil is known. For this the government will set up new mini labs in the 648 Krishi Vigyan Kendras and ensure 100 per cent coverage. . In addition, 1000 mini labs will be set up by qualified local entrepreneurs. The government will provide credit linked subsidy to these entrepreneurs.

Mr. Jaitley said the total corpus for the Long Term Irrigation Fund under NABARD will be Rs. 40,000 crore with the addition of Rs. 20,000 crore announced earlier. A dedicated Micro Irrigation Fund will be set up in NABARD to achieve the ‘per drop more crop’ goal with an initial corpus of Rs. 5000 crore. Ninety-nine irrigation projects are targeted to be completed by 2019 under the programme.

Over 250 markets have been connected through an electronic platform (e-NAM) under the National Agriculture Market programme launched last year. This will enable farmers to get better prices, in a transparent manner, for their produce in the post-harvest phase. The coverage of e-NAM will be expanded to 585 APMCs. For this, the government will provide assistance up to a ceiling of Rs. 75 lakhs will to every e-NAM market for establishment of cleaning, grading and packaging facilities for value addition to the farmers’ produce. Towards this end, states will be urged to undertake market reforms and de-notify perishables from the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee Act (APMC). This will give opportunity to farmers to sell their produce and get better prices.

Mr. Jaitley said that to integrate farmers who grow fruits and vegetables with agro-processing units for better price realization, the government proposes to bring a Model Law on Contract Farming. The model law will circulated to States for adoption.

Saluting the resilience and commitment of the Indian farmers, the Minister observed that the farm sector was set to grow by 4.1 per cent this year. He, however, underscored the need to enhance production and productivity and meet post-harvest challenges.

The budget allocation to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare was more than doubled in 2016-17 to Rs. 35983.69 crore from Rs. 15296.04 in 2015-16. The allocation in the Revised Estimates was Rs. 39840.50 crore. In the 2017-18 Budget, the Ministry has an outlay of Rs. 41855 crore.

*****
*Author is an award-winning, senior journalist. She is based in New Delhi.

Tags: budgetFarmer

Related Posts

The Third Eye: Envisioning India’s national security policy
Features

The Third Eye: Envisioning India’s national security policy

June 15, 2025
Holding onto Chair: The many tactics of Bangladesh’s Muhammad Yunus (IANS Analysis)
Features

Holding onto Chair: The many tactics of Bangladesh’s Muhammad Yunus (IANS Analysis)

June 11, 2025
A united India sends a clear message: Zero tolerance for terrorism
Features

A united India sends a clear message: Zero tolerance for terrorism

June 11, 2025
Way to go: Elon Musk’s father Errol hails India’s electric car scheme (IANS Exclusive)
Features

Way to go: Elon Musk’s father Errol hails India’s electric car scheme (IANS Exclusive)

June 2, 2025
Bangladesh’s anti-Yunus wave: A tale of democratic disillusionment (IANS Analysis)
Features

Bangladesh’s anti-Yunus wave: A tale of democratic disillusionment (IANS Analysis)

June 1, 2025 - Updated on June 2, 2025
The Cost of Power: How Pakistan’s military economy is undermining its future (IANS Analysis)
Features

The Cost of Power: How Pakistan’s military economy is undermining its future (IANS Analysis)

May 25, 2025 - Updated on May 26, 2025
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
D-2050 D-2050 D-2050
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

About us

Enewstime.in is run by an individual – a Journalist by profession of Tripura with the active help of several journos including senior journalists of the State. On top of that, Enewstime.in being a subscriber of IANS news agency, we have plenty of multi-choice topics to offer to our esteemed readers. Enewstime.in is a venture reach global audience from a tiny State Tripura.

Latest News

Raveena Tandon speaks of ‘new beginnings and rising again’ after Air India plane crash

India Inc’s operating profit margins likely to rise to 18.5 pc in Q1 FY26: Report

Air India flight returns to Hong Kong due to mid-air technical issue

UAE economy grows 4% in 2024, driven by non-oil sectors

Club WC: Botafogo beat Sounders; Palmeiras and FC Porto play out goalless draw

Ageing population, smoking behind surge in global rheumatoid arthritis since 1980: Study

Contact us

ssss

  • Contact us
  • Advertising Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

© 2025 Designed & Developed with ❤️ by Provibe Media LLP

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Northeast
    • National
    • International
    • Tripura News
  • Sports
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Health
  • Features
  • Tenders

© 2025 Designed & Developed with ❤️ by Provibe Media LLP