Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government will pay Rs 2.37 lakh crore towards procurement of wheat and paddy under MSP operations on Tuesday, February 1 while presenting the Union Budget for 2022-23 in Parliament. Also, the fiscal 2022-23 has been announced as the ‘International Year of Millets’, the Finance Minister said. With this, the government will support post-harvest support for enhancing domestic consumption of millet products internationally, she added.
She further said that Railways will develop new products for small farmers and that the Union government will promote Kisan Drones, chemical-free natural farming, public-private partnerships for the delivery of digital and high-tech services to farmers across the country.
Sitharaman also said that inclusive development is one of the four priorities of the government moving forward. As part of the inclusive development, the government will promote the use of 'Kisan Drones' for crop assessment, digitisation of land records and spraying of insecticides. The government will also facilitate a fund with blended capital raised under the co-investment model through Nabard to finance agri start-ups and rural enterprises, she said.
"This is to finance start-ups for agriculture and rural enterprises relevant to the farm produce value chain," the FM said. The activities of these start-ups will include inter-area support for farmer-producer organisations (FPOs), machinery for farmers on a rental basis at the farm level and technology including invitee base,” she added.
The Finance Minister further said the government will promote chemical-free natural farming throughout the country with a focus on farmers' lands in five-kilometre wide corridors along the longer river Ganga in the first stage. States will be encouraged to revise syllabi of agricultural universities to meet the needs of natural zero budget and organic farming, modern-day agriculture, value addition and management, she added.
With PTI inputs