Although the Union Budget for 2024-25 focused on the farm sector, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman skipped raising the allocations for the PM Kisan and Fasal Bima schemes.
PM Kisan is a flagship scheme of the Narendra Modi government with quarterly cash transfers of Rs 6,000 a year.
The budgetary allocation for PM Kisan had remained unchanged in the Interim Budget too, although estimates suggested that the allocation of Rs 60,000 crore would fall short for 11.8 crore beneficiaries.
Another flagship scheme of the Modi government, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, had an allocation of Rs 14,600 crore in the Interim Budget. It too remained unchanged in the full budget on July 23. Experts have said that the allocation is conservative to meet the demand.
The Modi government had promised to double farm incomes at the start of his tenure.
The Indian agriculture is defined by small land holdings, unequal growth across crops, heavy monsoon dependence, and low infrastructure investment. The share allocated to the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare as a proportion of the total budgeted expenditure has gone down over the last four years - from 4.4 percent in 2020-21 to 2.56 percent in 2023-24.
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