It’s not surprising that farmers in Punjab feel let down by the Central Budget for the financial year 2025-26
Editorial: It’s not surprising that farmers in Punjab feel let down by the Central Budget for the financial year 2025-26. The budget lacks any focused initiatives specifically for Punjab's agriculture sector. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan's claims that the budget provides substantial attention to the agricultural sector and would offer multi-dimensional and multi-level support seem far-fetched.
Experts in agricultural science and economics believe that none of the proposals included in the budget package can be considered revolutionary for the farming community.
The Economic Survey for the financial year 2024-25, presented a day before the budget, claimed that the Indian agriculture sector is flourishing in an organized manner. It highlighted the continuous increase in agricultural production and the sector's resilience to environmental and climatic challenges, outperforming the industrial economy.
According to the survey, the growth rate of agricultural production is between 2.5 to 3.5 percent, leading to increased farmer incomes and higher demand for consumer goods (especially edible oils, shampoos, soaps, perfumes, packaged food items, etc.) in rural areas, outpacing urban areas. The claim of growing agricultural diversity was also a significant point in the Economic Survey.
In her budget speech, the Finance Minister mentioned that despite substantial progress in the agricultural sector, special micro provisions have been made in the budget for its various branches to maintain the growth momentum and increase the cultivation area for crops whose production lags behind demand.
Professor R. Ramkumar of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, after reviewing the Finance Minister's claims and budget proposals, countered that there has been no significant increase in crop productivity, nor has there been much support for agricultural diversity. Even a simple analysis shows that from 2014-15 to 2022-23, there has been only a marginal increase in the yield of food grains and non-food crops compared to the decade from 2004-05 to 2013-14, rather than widespread improvement.
Over the two decades since 2004-05, the government has continuously increased support prices, but the costs of cultivation have also risen in the same proportion. Therefore, the government’s claim of increased farmer income cannot be considered very strong, if not hollow. The income that has increased primarily comes from supplementary occupations like dairy and fish farming, not from agricultural production.
As far as agricultural research is concerned, it was overlooked in the 2024-25 budget as well, and now for 2025-26, the allocated amount is only 21 crores more. On the other hand, the amount for promoting natural farming has been increased manifold from 30 crores in 2023-24 to 616 crores.
Government statistics reveal that much fraud is being perpetrated under the name of natural farming. Despite this, the government is excessively encouraging this practice. Some new crop technology missions have been proposed in the budget, but the funds allocated for them are clearly insufficient. The amounts like 500 crores for the cotton mission, 1000 crores for the pulses mission, and 100 crores for hybrid seed development seem like 'a drop in the bucket.'
The most disappointing aspect is that crop plans have not been tailored according to the strengths and weaknesses of different states. The agricultural economy of Punjab is entirely different from that of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, or Andhra Pradesh. There is an immediate need for special contributions to remove Punjab from the wheat-paddy cycle.
It is true that agriculture is a state subject, but state governments never had enough micro-resources to seriously undertake initiatives like changing crop cycles and conserving groundwater. Such initiatives need support from the Center, and that too with generosity and goodwill, just like during the Green Revolution in the 1960s. Can such magnanimity be expected from the Modi government?
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