Introduction

In her first budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reminded us of the famous quote from M K Gandhi, that the “soul of India lives in villages”. She also said that for Gramin Bharat, her focus is on “gaon, garib, and kisan”. She spelt out certain schemes but the overall focus was on strengthening infrastructure such as through the

• PM’s Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY),
• making annadatas also urjadatas (converting farmers into producers of solar power),
• strengthening e-NAM,
• focusing on fisheries through the Matsya Sampada Yojana, etc.

She also reiterated the PM’s promise of supplying piped water to every home by 2024, while reminding that 1,592 blocks in the country are critical and over-exploited in terms of water supply. These are all laudable steps, although one will have to see how they are achieved in due course. 

One notable thing in the various schemes announced for agriculture was the absence of emphasis on doubling farmers’ real incomes by 2022. Perhaps the reality that this is an uphill task has dawned on the government — it may not achieve even half the target.

But to know the real action in agriculture, one has to see the expenditure budget for the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, which has jumped from Rs 6,78,00 crore in 2018-19 (revised) to Rs 1,30,485 crores for 2019-20, (budgeted), a jump of more than 92 per cent. And this is mainly coming from PM-Kisan, which jumps from Rs 20,000 crore to Rs 75,000 crore.

This is the biggest policy shift, a move towards direct income transfer, which was an election promise. As far as other schemes are concerned, there is marginal change, and nowhere near PM-Kisan. No significant reforms or strategies have been announced for boosting agriculture and farmers’ incomes.