Government will establish two agriculture research institutions of excellence in Assam and Jharkhand with an initial sum of ₹ 100 crore in the current financial year. The Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley made this announcement while presenting his maiden budget in Lok Sabha today.

The Minister said that farming as an activity contributes nearly 1/6th to our National GDP and a major portion of our population is dependent on it for livelihood. It has risen to the challenge of making India largely self-sufficient in providing food for a growing population. The Finance Minister said that to make farming competitive and profitable, there is an urgent need to step up investment, both public and private, in agro-technology development and creation and modernization of existing agri-business infrastructure. Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa has been at the forefront of research in this area.

The Finance Minister in addition set aside an amount of ₹ 100 crore for setting up an “Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund.”

The Minister also proposed to establish Agriculture Universities in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and Horticulture Universities in Telangana and Haryana. An initial sum of ₹ 200 crores has been allocated for this purpose.

Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund established to support agro-technology and modernization, and university expansion planned. Creation of two agriculture research institutes in Assam and Jharkhand and constitution of an Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund with an initial budgetary allocation to promote agro-technology development and modernization of agri-business infrastructure; additionally, establishment of two Agricultural Universities and two Horticulture Universities with a separate initial allocation to build higher-education capacity in the agricultural sector.