Lok Sabha Question No. 268 (STARRED), answered on 2023-08-08
Subject: Separate Annual Budget for Agriculture
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Sanjeev Kumar Singari

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 268

TO BE ANSWERED ON 8 TH  AUGUST, 2023

## SEPARATE ANNUAL BUDGET FOR AGRICULTURE

- *268.   DR. SANJEEV KUMAR SINGARI: Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ ͪष एवं ͩकसान कãयाण मंğी be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government has any proposal to introduce a separate annual budget for agriculture  with  the  objective  of  increasing  agricultural  productivity,  protecting  farmers' welfare and working out legislations to regulate ground water use to protect the interests of both farmers and common people dependent on ground water as there are some water deficient States in the country; (b) if so, the details thereof and the steps being taken by the Government for the same; and
- (c) if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE क ृ िष एवं िकसान कʞाण मंũी (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

- (a) to (c): A statement is laid on the table of the house

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) to (c) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 268 DUE FOR ANSWER ON 8 TH  AUGUST, 2023

(a) to (c): Both agriculture and water are state subjects. However, Government of India is  actively supporting and supplementing efforts of state governments by implementing a comprehensive set of schemes and programmes for the benefit of farmers across agriculture and allied sectors as well as promoting sustainable groundwater management. Apart from the schemes, Government of India has also taken several initiatives to enhance income and improve  quality  of  life  of  farmers  which  include  unprecedented  enhancement  in  budget allocation  for  the  Ministry  of  Agriculture  &  Farmers  Welfare.  During  2012-13,  when  the Ministry of Cooperation, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying and Department of Fisheries were also part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, the total budget allocation  was  only  Rs  27,931.59  crore.  However,  even  after  separation  of  these ministries/departments subsequently, total budget allocation for the Ministry of Agriculture and  Farmers  Welfare  has  been  increased  to  Rs  1,25,035.79  crore  during  2023-24. However, there are no proposals under consideration of the Government to introduce a separate  budget  for  agriculture.  Major  achievements  of  the  Ministry  of  Agriculture  and Farmers  Welfare  owing  to  its  consistent  and  focused  monitoring  of  various  schemes/ programmes are as follows;

## i. Record Production in Food and Horticulture

Food  grain  production  has  increased  from  265.05  million  tonnes  in  2013-14  to record 330.53 million tonnes in 2022-23 (as per 3rd advance estimates) which is the highest ever food grain production. The horticulture production was 350.87 million tonnes in 202223 which is highest ever for Indian Horticulture (as per 1 st  advance estimates).

## ii. Growth in Export of Agricultural commodities

The country has witnessed emphatic growth in export of agri and allied commodities. Agri and allied export has increased from 50.24 billion USD in 2021-22 to 53.15 billion USD in 2022-23 i.e. an increase of 5.8%.

## iii. Increase in Minimum Support Price

Government  has  increased  the  MSP  for  all  mandated  Kharif,  Rabi  and  other commercial crops with a return of at least 50 per cent over all India weighted average cost of production from 2018-19. MSP for Paddy (common) has increased to Rs. 2183 per quintal in 2023-24 from Rs. 1310 per quintal in 2013-14. MSP for Wheat increased from Rs. 1400 per quintal in 2013-14 to Rs. 2125 per quintal in 2022-23. Also there has been an increase in procurement from farmers.

## iv. Income support and Risk Cover

PM-KISAN provides income support to farmers. Since its launch, more than Rs. 2.60 lakh crore has been released to more than 11 crore farmers. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) was launched in 2016 addressing problems of high premium rates for farmers and reduction in sum insured due to capping. In past 7 Years of implementation, 48.46  crore  farmer  applications  enrolled  and  over  13.63  crore  farmer  applicants  have received claims of over Rs. 1,40,599 crore.

## v. Institutional Credit for Agriculture Sector

Institutional credit for agriculture sector is increased from Rs. 7.3 lakh crore in 201314 with a target to reach Rs. 20 lakh crore in 2023-24. Benefit of concessional institutional credit  through  KCC  at  4%  interest  per  annum  has  also  now  been  extended  to  Animal Husbandry and Fisheries farmers for meeting their short-term working capital needs. A special drive has been undertaken since February 2020 to provide concessional institutional credit with focus on covering all PM-KISAN beneficiaries through Kisan Credit Cards (KCC). As on 16.06.2023, 420.69 lakh new KCC applications have been sanctioned with a sanctioned credit limit of Rs. 5,04,624 crore as part of the drive.

## vi. Promotion of Organic Farming

The schemes Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and Mission Organic Value Chain  Development  for  North  Eastern  Region  (MOVCDNER)  cater  to  the  promotion  of organic farming in the country. Under PKVY Scheme 32,384 clusters (20 ha each) formed, 6.53 lakh ha area covered and 16.19 lakh farmers have been benefitted.

GoI  has  already  initiated  Natural  Farming  through  implementation  of  Bhartiya Prakritic Krishi Padhati (BPKP- a sub scheme of PKVY) since 2020-21. A total of 4.09 lakh ha area has already been covered in 8 States under BPKP. The BPKP scheme is being up scaled in Mission Mode as a separate as National Mission on Natural Farming to cover 7.5 lakh ha area by developing 15000 clusters. Under Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), scheme for holistic growth of the horticulture sector, an additional area of 12.61 lakh ha. of identified horticulture crops has been covered.

## vii. Agricultural Infrastructure Fund

In order to mobilize a medium - long term debt financing facility for investment in agri Infrastructure, Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) of Rs one lakh crore was launched in 2020. All loans under this financing facility have interest subvention of 3% per annum up to a limit of 2 crore. As on 31.07.2023, Rs. 26064 Crores have been sanctioned for 33369 projects under AIF, out of this total sanctioned amount scheme benefits are extended for an amount of Rs 21083 Crores. These sanctioned projects have mobilized an investment of Rs. 44208 crores in agriculture sector. Major projects sanctioned under AIF include 9990 warehouses,  6848  primary  processing  units,  1127  cold  store  projects,  1792  sorting  & grading  units,  6735  custom  hiring  centres,  around  6877  other  kinds  of  post-harvest management projects and community farming assets.

## viii. Promotion of FPOs

The  Government  of  India  has  launched  the  Central  Sector  Scheme  (CSS)  for 'Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)' in the year 2020. 6319 FPOs have been registered under the scheme so far.  A National Beekeeping and Honey Mission (NBHM) has been launched in 2020 as part of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.  Rs.  500  crores  for  the  period  2020-2021  to  2022-2023  has  been allocated  for beekeeping sector.

## ix. Per Drop More Crop (PDMC)

In  order to  increase water use efficiency at the farm level through Micro Irrigation technologies i.e. drip and sprinkler irrigation systems, Per Drop More Crop (PDMC) scheme was launched during 2015-16. An area of 78 lakh hectare has been covered under Micro irrigation through the PDMC scheme since 2015-16. Moreover, a Micro Irrigation Fund (MIF) of initial corpus Rs 5000 crore was created with NABARD.  In the Budget Announcement for 2021-22, the corpus of the fund was increased to Rs.10000 crores.

## x. Promotion of Drone Technology in Agriculture

Looking into the unique advantages of drone technologies in agriculture, a Standard Operating  Procedures  (SOPs)  has  been  released.  In  order  to  make  this  technology affordable to the farmers and other stakeholders of this sector, financial assistance @ 100 % cost of drone together with the contingent expenditure is provided for its demonstration on the farmers' fields. So far an amount of Rs. 134.56 crores have been released towards Kisan drone promotion.

## xi. Setting up E-NAM extension platform

Government has set up a National Agriculture Market (eNAM), a pan-India electronic trading portal which networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities. 1361 mandis of 23 States and 04 UTs have been integrated to e-NAM  platform  and  more  than  1.75  Crore  Farmers  &  2.45  Lakh  traders  have  been registered on e-NAM portal.

## xii. Agri Startups

Under RKVY Agri-startup Programme, during FY 2019-20 to 2022-23, 1176 Startups have been selected and Rs. 75.25 crore released as grants-in-aid for funding these Start-ups.

## xiii. International Year of Millets

Since the declaration of the International Year of Millets (IYM) 2023 by the UNGA in 2021,  Government  has  taken  a  proactive  multi  stakeholder  engagement  approach  to achieve the aim of IYM 2023 and taking Indian millets globally.  In order to investigate the gaps and challenges across the millets value chain and implementation of suitable solutions, 6  task  forces  were  constituted.    Also,  25  seed-hubs  have  been  established  to  ensure availability of quality seed of latest improved varieties of Nutri cereals in the country. Millet missions have been launched across 8 states including Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand. More than 500 startups and 350 FPOs have been established and are operational in the millet ecosystem as of now.

## xiv. Release of High Yielding Varieties of Crops

For  augmenting  production  and  productivity,  several  High  Yielding  Varieties  and Hybrids of field crops were developed. Indian Council of Agricultural Research has released 2279 varieties of different field crops which include 1092 of Cereals;  343 of Oilseeds; 343 of Pulses; 137  of Forages; 279  of Fibre crops; 68  of Sugarcane and 17 of potential crops.

Regarding  legislations  to  regulate  ground  water  use,  Ministry  of  Jal  Shakti  has circulated a Model Bill to all the States/UTs to enable them to enact suitable ground water legislation  for  regulation  of  its  development.  So  far,  21  States/UTs  have  adopted  and implemented the ground water legislation on the lines of the Model Bill, the details of which are given in Annexure-I. As per the Guidelines Notified by Ministry of Jal Shakti for regulation and control of ground water development, the Authority issues No Objection Certificate (NOC) for ground water abstraction.  The Ministry of Jal Shakti has notified the guidelines on 24.09.2020 (SO No.  3289(E))  for  regulation  and  control  of  ground  water  development  in  the  country. Amendment to guidelines have also been issued vide notification dated 29.03.2023 (SO No. 1509(E) according to which 'Agriculture sector shall be exempted from obtaining NOC for ground water extraction'.

## STATUS OF ENACTMENT OF MODEL BILL BY STATES

- A. States/ UTs where Model Bill Enacted and Implemented (15 States and 6 UTs)
- B. States/ UTs where Initiatives taken for Enactment of Model Bill (10 States and 1 UTs)
- C.         States which feel it not necessary to Enact Legislation (4 States)

| SL. NO.   | STATES                              |
|-----------|-------------------------------------|
| 1         | Andhra Pradesh                      |
| 2         | Assam                               |
| 3         | Bihar                               |
| 4         | Goa                                 |
| 5         | Haryana                             |
| 6         | Himachal Pradesh                    |
| 7         | Karnataka                           |
| 8         | Kerala                              |
| 9         | Maharashtra                         |
| 10        | Nagaland                            |
| 11        | Odisha                              |
| 12        | Punjab                              |
| 13        | Telangana                           |
| 14        | Uttar Pradesh                       |
| 15        | West Bengal                         |
|           | Union Territories                   |
| 1         | Chandigarh (Regulations & Byelaws)  |
| 2         | Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu |
| 3         | Jammu and Kashmir                   |
| 4         | Ladakh                              |
| 5         | Lakshadweep                         |
| 6         | Pondicherry                         |

| Sl. No.   | STATES                                                     |
|-----------|------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1         | Chhattisgarh                                               |
| 2         | Gujarat                                                    |
| 3         | Jharkhand                                                  |
| 4         | Madhya Pradesh                                             |
| 5         | Meghalaya                                                  |
| 6         | Mizoram                                                    |
| 7         | NCT Delhi (Regulation is being done through Govt. Orders)  |
| 8         | Rajasthan                                                  |
| 9         | Tamil Nadu (Regulation is being done through Govt. Orders) |
| 10        | Uttarakhand                                                |
|           | Union Territories                                          |
| 1         | Andaman & Nicobar                                          |

|   Sl. No. | States            |
|-----------|-------------------|
|         1 | Arunachal Pradesh |
|         2 | Manipur           |
|         3 | Sikkim            |
|         4 | Tripura           |

****

## Annexure-I