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Agriculture & Food Industry expectations from Budget 2022: As Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to present her third Union Budget on 1, 2022.
Here’s what the Agriculture, Food Industry and Agritech startups expects from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman:
Anuj Kumbhat, Founder & CEO, Weather Risk Management Services (WRMS):
As agriculture remains the backbone of the rural economy in India, the sector is always the key spotlight in the Union Budget. In the current scenario, where the country is making all the possible ways to deal with another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we expect the government to allocate a significant amount of budget that paves the way for economic revival for the farmers.
As we know, COVID has given a booster dose to the digital transformation; we would like the government to put policies in place that allows farmers to be better aware of technology-enabled smart approaches in farming. This can be done as an offshoot of the much-publicised “Digital India” where there was added impetus on the adoption of digital technology.
We envision a future where technology becomes the best companion of the farmer and provides them the best productivity from their limited means. This can only be achieved by de-risking farming to impart the confidence to adopt the latest innovations and technology among the farmers, especially smallholders. Hope the government imparts the agritech sector necessary opportunities and incentives to grow as a robust sector within the country’s economy.
Subhadeep Sanyal, Partner, Omnivore:
The pandemic emerged as an added challenge to the doubling of farmers’ income. I expect the government to bolster this objective via better credit availability, robust storage and logistics infrastructure and strengthening backward linkages.
However, farm income is also intertwined with the deepening impact of climate change. Recognizing India’s vulnerability on this front, the government can add to its efforts for finding long-term sustainable solutions. Incentivizing private investments in agrifood life sciences is certainly a step in that direction.