As part of measures to enhance productivity and resilience in Agriculture, Union Budget 2024-25 has announced several measures including thrust on agriculture research, promotion of natural farming and national cooperation policy.

TRANSFORMING AGRICULTURE RESEARCH

The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the Government will undertake a comprehensive review of the agriculture research setup to bring the focus on raising productivity and developing climate resilient varieties. While presenting the Union Budget 2024-2025 in the Parliament today, she said funding will be provided in challenge mode, including to the private sector. The Union Minister added that domain experts both from the Government and outside will oversee the conduct of such research. The Budget also announced that new 109 high-yielding and climate-resilient varieties of 32 field and horticulture crops will be released for cultivation by farmers.

NATURAL FARMING

The Finance Minister also announced that in the next two years, one crore farmers across the country will be initiated into natural farming supported by certification and branding. She said implementation will be through scientific institutions and willing gram panchayats and 10,000 need-based bio-input resource centres will be established for the purpose.

NATIONAL COOPERATION POLICY

The Union Minister said that Government will bring out a National Cooperation Policy for systematic, orderly and all-round development of the cooperative sector. She said that fast-tracking growth of rural economy and generation of employment opportunities on a large scale will be the policy goal.

Agriculture research refocus to prioritise productivity and climate resilient varieties, with challenge mode funding and scaled natural farming support. A comprehensive review of the national agriculture research framework will prioritise productivity and climate resilient varieties, with funding allocated in challenge mode to public and private researchers under expert oversight, and the release of new high yielding climate resilient crop varieties. Concurrently, a national natural farming programme will expand farmer adoption via certification, branding, institutional and gram panchayat implementation, supported by a network of bio input resource centres, while a National Cooperation Policy aims to developmentally strengthen the cooperative sector to boost rural growth and employment.