FM gave a major push to agricultural sector

In his Union Budget on Monday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley gave a major push to the Agricultural sector. It placed a renewed focus on the farm sector in a bid to revive agricultural growth and improve farm incomes at a time when rural India is going through a protracted period of distress.

Government has reoriented its interventions in the farm and non-farm sectors to double the income of the farmers by 2022. The total allocation for Agriculture and Farmers’ welfare is Rs 35984 crore. The ‘Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana’ has been strengthened and will be implemented in mission mode. 28.5 lakh hectares will be brought under irrigation under this scheme.

This development will provide farmers with income security and a unified agricultural market scheme to enhance farmer access to markets. The government, in FY17, has an all-time high target of Rs 9 lakh crore for agriculture credit and has proposed Rs 5,500 crore for Crop Insurance scheme. Also, under the Rural Sadak Yojana, net allocation of Rs 19,000 crore has been made for the year.

Additionally, 4 new schemes—'Pashudhan Sanjivani'; 'Nakul Swasthya Patra'; 'E-Pashudhan Haat'; and National Genomic Centre for indigenous breeds— have been introduced to enhance dairy farming in India at Rs 850 crore. The government is further looking at promoting organic farming through 'Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana' and 'Organic Value Chain Development in North East Region'.

Also, the finance ministry has provisioned Rs 15,000 crore for interest subvention of agriculture loans and creation of new infrastructures for irrigation as a value addition to farm-market connectivity.

FM announced allocation of Rs 17,000 crore to Accelerated Irrigation Programme Benefit (AIPB) for FY17. With an initial corpus of about Rs 20,000 crore, a dedicated Long Term Irrigation Fund will be created in National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).

The initiatives from FM will give the much needed boost to agricultural sector in the coming year. It will also help the companies in the sector. The companies which can get a boost from this budget are Jain Irrigation, Supreme Industries, Nilkamal Ltd, Tulsi Extrusion.

Currently, Jain Irrigation is trading at Rs 38.90, a decrease of 2.91 per cent from the previous close. Nilkamal Ltd. is trading at Rs 979.35, an increase of 5.61 per cent from the previous close. Supreme Industries is trading at 671, an increase of 0.40 per cent. Tulsi Extrusion is trading at Rs 2.66, a decrease of 4.32 per cent.