Agri experts and industry players on Saturday gave a mixed reaction to the budget proposals, saying the government did not announce any major structural reforms to increase farmers' income.
Farmers' body India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) called a nation-wide protest on February 13 to protest against the "pro-corporate" budget.
Industry players observed that the government failed to bring reforms in the Essential Commodities Act. There were few schemes to spur private investment and capital formation in the agriculture space.
However, fertiliser cooperative major IFFCO welcomed proposal of exempting cooperative societies from minimum alternate tax and also bringing tax rate for cooperative societies to 22 per cent from 30 per cent.
"These steps will indeed help the cooperatives to work in a dynamic manner and can bring more innovations for the farmers of country," IFFCO Managing Director U S Awasthi said in a statement.
Hailing the Budget, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) Chairman Dilip Rath said: "18 per cent increase in allocation of funds to Animal Husbandry and Dairying sector to Rs 3,289 crore for the 2020-21 fiscal as against the revised budget estimate for 2019-20 is remarkable which recognizes that dairy sector is increasingly becoming an important sector for the economy, especially for the rural areas."
Cargill India President Simon George said, "Agriculture being the backbone of the nation it would be significant to see how the government would push the Krishi Udaan on not just national but international routes and enabling agri and farmers to be part of the global value chains, providing enormous value addition for farmers and the economy."
Farm machinery maker CLAAS Managing Director Mrityunjaya Singh said: "Adoption of Model agricultural laws, agricultural credit availability of 15 lakh crore and allocation of 2.83 lakh crore will encourage farmers to adopt latest farming machinery and technology. This will upskill the farming sector in India."
Netafim Agricultural Financing Agency Pvt CEO Prabhat Chaturvedi said, "NABARD initiative to create an e-portal of geo-tagged, WDRA-compliant warehouses, integrated with eNAM, is a welcome step, which will help in better prices as well as warehouse-receipt financing for farmers."
SourceTrace Vice President Marketing Om Routray said: "The budget has been favourable thus far towards agriculture and allied sectors. There is a good focus on using technology to develop agriculture in India."
Aadvik Foods Co-founder Shrey Kumar said: "Overall the budget looks positive towards start-ups and improving the logistics and infrastructure of the agriculture segment."
Garware Technical Fibres CEO Shujaul Rehman said, "Sagar Mitras is an appreciative initiative for rural youth in fisheries. Thus fish farming is now a thriving sector and we see the sector GDP and turnover graph ascending with time."
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