Budget 2023–24: Stakeholders expect to include farm-industry-boosting measures
In the Union Budget 2023–24, stakeholders in the agricultural and related industries expect to see a lot of plans to improve the farm industry.
Atul Chaturvedi, the Executive Chairman of Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd., said that India is at a critical point in terms of both energy security and sustainable development. As part of its Atmanirbhar program, this government has said that it wants to cut down on energy imports and has also laid out a big plan for sustainability. The goal of blending 20% ethanol (E20) into gasoline by 2030 is a step in the right direction.
So, this budget is very important, and I hope that the government will come up with new ideas, like raising the price of ethanol, to encourage more of it to be made. Meeting the blending goals will, of course, help a lot with decarbonizing our economy and getting us closer to the government’s goal of being carbon-neutral by 2070. Furthermore, boosting the sugar export quota will aid in speedier revenue realization, allowing for faster payments to farmers.’
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‘As far as the edible oil business goes, the government would hopefully look into concrete ways to help the edible oil business, like banning the import of refined oils, to improve the use of domestic capacity and create jobs,’ Chaturvedi said. Also, the much-discussed National Mission on Oilseeds should be set up with enough funding to make India less reliant on importing edible oil. ‘We are excited to see what the government has in store for the industry.’
‘In the approaching budget, we hope to see changes and support connected to animal agriculture as this will boost farmer production and sustainability,’ said B Soundararajan, Chairman of Suguna Group. Currently, animal farming makes up 27% of the agricultural GDP. In the next few years, this number needs to go up to 40%. This will be helpful in a number of ways, such as making it easier for farmers to make a living, replacing artificial fertilizer with organic manure, and giving consumers access to a high-quality protein that will help them stay healthy. Ask the government to treat animal agriculture and direct agriculture the same way in every way. Soya seed and meal should be free from GST. We feel that reversing this trend will be advantageous to farmers. End products are exempt, but numerous inputs are taxed increasing farmer costs. We propose that the banking industry treat animal husbandry loans as agricultural loans since this will ease the approval process.
‘In order to achieve self-sufficiency, we could expect the Budget to focus on programs targeted at lowering imports and increasing domestic production of agricultural products,’ said Harsha Razdan, Partner and Head, of Consumer Markets and internet business at KPMG in India. Measures to increase food exports will remain a top priority. In order to improve crop production, continuous subsidies for inputs to increase crop output, as well as initiatives to provide financial help to farmers, could be expected. Organic farming, new innovative irrigation technologies, and assistance for agriculture-related industries like fisheries might all play a significant role in the budget. Finally, proper cold chains, storage facilities, and backhouses are critical in the total agri value chain. As a result, leveraging technological investments in agri-based breakthroughs and expanding market linkages through a national portal/app might greatly benefit the sector.’
‘In 2022, the government released a specialized policy framework to support decentralized renewable energy applications for livelihoods, stated Abhishek Jain, Fellow, and Director of Powering Livelihoods, Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW).’
‘We hope that this significant example of achieving the trifecta of jobs, growth, and sustainability will find fiscal allocations in the next budget to begin realizing the policy framework’s objective.’
Agrizy’s founder, Vicky Dodani ‘The Indian government is aggressively promoting as many people as possible working in agriculture to adopt digitalization. Digitizing the agriculture industry is one way to reduce the damage farming does to the environment and the coming economic downturn in some areas. Because of this, we think that businesses and governments all over the world will invest more in agricultural technology, using advances in cloud computing, earth observation, remote sensing, data, and AI/ML models to help the industry find new opportunities and solve problems. This can make a big difference in increasing food production, making more money, and cutting costs, all of which are important for long-term sustainability.’
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‘There is a significant gap in India between what the market needs and what farmers provide. This gap needs to be closed if the government wants to reach its goal of doubling farmer profits. The agrifood processing business helps close this gap in a big way by making food last longer and reducing waste. In this regard, India has a long way to go. For example, only 3% of the country’s total F&V output is processed there, which is a lot less than in some industrialized countries. According to a recent industry study, the global agritech market will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12% between 2020 and 27. India competes in this market alongside the United States and China.’
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