Budget 2016: Farm sector gets Rs 35,000 cr in allocation

The country's rural sector is reeling under the aftermath of two consecutive droughts, lead to widespread distress

To change its pro-rich image, which in some parts of the country has led to electoral setbacks, the Union Budget 2016-17 today raised the Budgetary Allocation for agriculture and farmers welfare to Rs 35,000 crore.

Given that the country's rural sector is reeling under the aftermath of two consecutive droughts which has lead to widespread distress, this seems to be a wise move, only if states who now have a greater responsibility in using the funds manage to spend this heightened allocation wisely.

The BE for 2015-16 was Rs 16,646 crore. The increased allocation would be spent on irrigation, which was given an allocation of Rs 12,517 crore in 2016-17, over and above the Rs 5,300 crore allocated in 2015-16.

 
Read our full coverage on Union Budget 2016

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also allocated Rs 368 crore for setting up Self-Help Groups (SHGs) for rural development. To boost pulses production, the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) was allocated Rs 500 crore to cover all the 622 villages.

The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), which plans to connect all the villages in the country with all-weather roads in the next 2-3 years, the Union Budget allocated Rs 19,000 crore, as against Rs 15,100 crore in 2015-16.

The marquee crop insurance scheme, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), which was launched with much fan-fare in 2015-16, the Central Budget allocated Rs 5,500 crore as Centre’s share on the subsidised premium.

To ensure that farmers get the benefit of Minimum Support Price (MSP) the Union Budget announced a three pronged strategy. MNREGA's got a budgetary support of Rs 38,500 crore, which was among the highest allocation in the last few years. The entire rural sector also got a strong budget boost with an allocation of over Rs 87,000 crore

The Finance Minister’s and for that matter the entire government’s focus on farm and rural sector could be gauged from the fact that Jaitley sought to reach his remaining budget speech sitting down.