Jordan's state grains buyer purchased 60,000 tonnes of hard milling wheat to be sourced from optional origins in a tender which closed on Tuesday, traders said.

 

It was bought from trading house Ameropa at an estimated $326.00 a tonne c&f for shipment in the second half of August, they said.

 

Traders said two other trading houses participated in the tender, CHS offered $329.43 a tonne c&f and Cargill offered $335.00 a tonne c&f.

The Union Finance Minister on Tuesday proposed to increase the budget allocation in the agriculture sector from Rs 1,23,018 crore to Rs 1,32,513 crores—a marginal increase of Rs 9495 crores from the previous budget allocation.

 

Besides, the government has also proposed to allocate Rs 6037 to the Ministry of  Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Diaring and another Rs 2,941 crore to the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, the Finance Minister budget provisions made by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

 

She also proposed to promote high services to farmers including the use of ‘Kisan Drones’ for crop assessment, digitization of land records, spraying of insecticides and nutrients.

 

She said for the delivery of digital and hi-tech services to farmers with the involvement of public sector research and extension institutions along with private agri-tech players and stakeholders of the agri-value chain, a scheme in PPP mode would be launched.

 

Besides this, the state governments would also be encouraged to revise syllabi of agricultural universities to meet the needs of natural, zero-budget, and organic farming, modern-day agriculture, value addition, and management, the Finance Minister said.

 

She said a fund with blended capital, raised under the co-investment model, would be facilitated through NABARD. This is to finance startups for agriculture and rural enterprise, relevant for farm produce value chain.

 

'The activities for these startups will include, inter alia, support for FPOs, machinery for farmers on rental basis at farm level, and technology including IT-based support,' the Finance Minister said.

 

The government would also promote chemical-free natural farming throughout the country with a special focus on farmer’s land in five-kilometer-wide corridors along river Ganga. In wake of 2023 being announced as the International Year of Millets, 'Support will be provided for post-harvest value addition, enhancing domestic consumption, and for branding millet products nationally and internationally,' the Finance Minister said.

 

She said the government would also announce a rationalized and comprehensive scheme to increase the production of oilseeds to reduce India’s dependence on the import of oilseeds.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced that the government plans to promote chemical-free natural farming across the country. At the same time, she also reduced the allocation towards the fertiliser subsidy by around a fourth over the revised estimates last year.

 

Presenting the Union Budget on Tuesday, Sitharaman said, 'Chemical-free natural farming will be promoted throughout the country, with a focus on farmers’ lands in 5-km wide corridors along the River Ganga, at the first stage.'

 

Further, she added that States will be encouraged to revise the syllabi of agricultural universities to meet the needs of natural, zero-budget and organic farming, modern-day agriculture, value addition and management.

 

For the fertiliser subsidy, the Budget has made an allocation of Rs1,05,222 crore, about 25 per cent lower than the revised estimates of previous year’s Rs1,40,122 crore. Of the total outlay for the fertiliser sector for 2022-23, Rs63,222 crore has been earmarked for urea (Rs75,930 crore RE 2021-22) alone and Rs42,000 crore for the nutrient-based subsidy (Rs64,192 crore RE 2021-22) for phosphatic and potassic fertilisers.

 

‘Subsidy inadequate’

 

ICRA said the budgetary allocation for the fertiliser subsidy is inadequate to meet the sector’s requirement for the year. ICRA expects the subsidy requirement to be around Rs1.30-1.40-lakh crore. While the subsidy allocation remains lower than the expectations, ICRA expects GoI to make additional allocations in case of an increase in the requirements as the year progresses as has been the case for the last two fiscals.

 

Interestingly, on Monday, the Economic Survey had made a pitch for reduction in use of chemical fertilisers and promote the use of low-cost organic inputs to protect the soil. The main aim for promotion of natural farming is elimination of chemical fertilisers and pesticides usage and promotion of good agronomic practices.

 

'Natural farming also aims to sustain agriculture production with eco-friendly processes in tune with nature to produce agricultural produce free of chemicals. Soil fertility and soil organic matter is restored by natural farming practices. Natural farming systems require less water and are climate friendly,' the Survey had said.

 

Natural farming in India is being promoted through a dedicated scheme of Bharatiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati Programme (BPKP). The scheme promotes on-farm biomass recycling with major stress on biomass mulching, use of on-farm cow dung-urine formulations, periodic soil aeration and exclusion of all synthetic chemical inputs. Under BPKP, financial assistance of Rs12,200 per hectare for 3 years is provided for cluster formation, capacity building and continuous hand-holding by trained personnel, certification and residue analysis.

Increased focus on agricultural allied sectors such as animal husbandry has helped improve India’s per capita milk availability to 427 grams per day for the year 2020-21, up from 319 grams in 2014-15. The Economic Survey 2020-21, tabled in Parliament on Monday showed that the livestock sector including animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries grew at a CAGR of 8.15 per cent during 2014-15 to 2019-20 (at constant prices). 'It is observed that even the segments like marine products, buffalo meat, tea, coffee and dairy products, which had not performed well during 2020-21, have registered substantial growth during the current year. This augurs well for further diversification and strengthening of agricultural exports in the coming years,' the Survey noted. Per capita availability of meat has increased to 6.52 kg per year in 2020-21 from 5.32 kg per year in 2014-15. Egg availability has improved to 91 eggs per person per year from 62 in 2014-15. The livestock sector is an important subsector of agriculture in the Indian economy, contributing 29.35 per cent (2019-20) in the total agriculture and allied sector gross value added (GVA), up from 24.32 per cent in 2014-15, as per the estimates of National Accounts Statistics (NAS) 2020. The livestock sector contributed 4.35 per cent of total GVA in 2019-20.

 

Other high growth sectors

 

Allied sectors including animal husbandry, dairying and fishing are steadily emerging to be high growth sectors, it said quoting the latest SAS that the livestock sector has been a stable source of income across groups of agricultural households accounting for about 15 per cent of their average monthly income. This is in line with the recommendations of the Committee on Doubling Farmers’ Income which has suggested a greater focus on allied sectors to improve farmers’ income. The Economic Survey 2021-22 also noted that dairy is the single largest agricultural commodity contributing 5 per cent of the national economy and employing more than eight crore farmers directly. India’s milk production has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of about 6.2 per cent to reach 209.96 million tonnes in 2020-21 from 146.31 million tonnes in 2014-15.

The country’s oilseed production has gone up by 43 per cent between 2015-16 and 2020-21.

 

The Economic Survey for 2021-22 said oilseed production in India has steadily increased from 2016-17 onwards. It was showing a fluctuating trend prior to that.

 

The fourth advanced estimates data from the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, which is available in the Economic Survey, showed that oilseed production in the country was at 25.3 million tonnes (mt) in 2015-16. It went up to 31.3 mt in 2016-17, and 31.5 mt in 2017-18 and 2018-19. It picked up further and went up to 33.2 mt in 2019-20, and 36.1 mt in 2020-21.

 

Demand up

 

The Economic Survey also noted that the oil production in India has, however, lagged behind its consumption necessitating import of edible oils.

 

While the edible oil production in the country increased from 6.1 mt in 2015-16 to 7.9 mt in 2019-20, the import of oil increased from 14.9 mt in 2015-16 to 15.6 mt in 2018-19, before coming down to 13.4 mt in 2019-20.

 

The survey noted that as urbanisation increases in developing countries, dietary habits and traditional meal patterns are expected to shift towards processed foods that have a high content of vegetable oil.

 

'Vegetable oil consumption in India is, therefore, expected to remain high due to high population growth and consequent urbanisation. As per the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2021-2030, India is projected to maintain a high per capita vegetable oil consumption growth of 2.6 per cent per annum reaching 14 kg/capita by 2030, necessitating a high import growth of 3.4 per cent per annum,' it said.

 

Oilseed Mission

 

Considering the persistently high import of edible oil, increase in oil production has been a priority for the government. It said the government has been promoting the production and productivity of oilseeds through the Centrally sponsored scheme of National Food Security Mission: Oilseeds (NFSM-Oilseeds) from 2018-19 onwards in all districts of India.

 

In August 2021, National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) was launched to augment the availability of edible oil in the country by harnessing area expansion and through price incentives. Under the scheme, for the first time, the government is giving a price assurance to the oil palm farmers for the fresh fruit bunches (FFBs). This will be known as the viability price which will protect the farmers from the fluctuations of the international crude palm oil (CPO) prices, it said.

 

Crude palm oil

 

Mentioning that India has enormous potential for cultivation of oil palm and production of CPO, the Survey said oil palm produces 10-46 times more oil per hectare compared to other oilseed crops. Oil palm has yield of around 4 tonnes oil per hectare.

 

It said the NMEO-OP may be considered a major initiative of the government given the fact that that around 98 per cent of CPO is being imported.

 

At present only 3.70 lakh hectares of area is under oil palm cultivation. The scheme aims to cover an additional area of 6.5 lakh hectares for oil palm till 2025-26 and thereby reach the target of 10 lakh hectares ultimately.

 

The scheme also targets the production of CPO to go up to 11.20 lakh tonnes by 2025-26 and up to 28 lakh tonnes by 2029-30, it said.

Egypt’s state grains buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), bought 420,000 tonnes of wheat in an international tender it said on Friday.

 

The purchase comprised 60,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat, 60,000 tonnes of Russian wheat, and 60,000 tonnes of Romanian wheat for shipment March 5-15, and 120,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat, 60,000 tonnes of Romanian wheat and 60,000 tonnes of Russian wheat for shipment March 16-26, GASC said.

 

GASC did not give further details.

 

European traders said these purchases were made in FOB terms plus freight (ocean shipping) costs with final c&f price, each shipment was 60,000 tonnes:

 

Shipment between March 5-15:

 

-Nibulon Ukrainian $326.00 FOB plus $20.89 = $346.89 c&f

 

-Grainexport Russian $329.65 FOB plus $20.35 = $350 c&f

 

-Ameropa Romanian $329.65 FOB plus $19.75 = $349.40

 

Shipment between March 16-26:

 

-Nibulon Ukrainian $326.00 FOB plus $20.89 = $346.89 c&f

 

-CHS Romanian $329.65 FOB plus $19.75 = $349.40 c&f

 

-Inerco Ukrainian $328.77 FOB plus $21.23 = $350 c&f

 

-Grainexport Russian $329.20 FOB plus $20.35 = $349.55 c&f

 

Offers in the tender were submitted earlier on Friday. In its last tender on Dec. 29, GASC bought 300,000 tonnes of French, Ukrainian and Romanian wheat.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday said the country's farm production and procurement increased during 2020-21 crop year despite the pandemic and agricultural exports reached a record level of Rs 3 lakh crore during the same period. In his address to the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament at the start of the Budget session, Kovind said the government is focusing on making the country self-sufficient in edible oils besides making special efforts to promote organic farming, natural farming and crop diversification.

 

'My government is working continuously to empower the farmers and the rural economy of the country... I would like to give maximum credit to the small farmers of the country for this consistent success and strengthening of the agriculture sector,' he said.

 

Highlighting achievements of the Modi government in the farm sector, the President said despite the pandemic, farmers produced more than 30 crore tonnes of food grains and 33 crore tonnes of horticulture produce in 2020-21 crop year (July-June).

 

The government made record procurement with purchase of 433 lakh tonnes of wheat during the 2021-22 rabi marketing year (April-March) benefiting about 50 lakh farmers.

 

A record quantity of about 900 lakh tonnes of paddy was procured during the 2020-21 kharif marketing (October-September), benefitting 1.30 crore farmers, he added.

 

'Our agriculture exports have also reached a record level due to the efforts of the government. Agricultural exports registered a growth of more than 25 per cent in 2020-21, and have reached nearly Rs 3 lakh crore,' Kovind said.

 

He was referring to crop year 2020-21.

 

Domestic honey production increased by 55 per cent 1.25 lakh tonne in 2020-21 crop year from over 2014-15 due to incentives provided by the government to boost production, he said, adding that honey production are important means of generation new sources of income for farmers.

 

Honey export has also grown by more than 102 per cent as compared to 2014-15, he added.

 

To ensure farmers get access to the right market and remunerative prices, the President said the government has endeavoured to open new avenues of prosperity for the farmers by launching Kisan Rail Seva.

 

'During the corona period, Indian Railways operated over 1,900 Kisan Rails on more than 150 routes to transport perishable food items like vegetables, fruits and milk, thereby transporting about 6 lakh tonnes of agricultural produce,' he said, adding that this is an example of how new avenues can be created from the existing resources if the thinking is innovative.

 

Stating that small farmers who constitute 80 per cent of the farmer-community have always been central to the government, the President said the government has provided Rs 1.80 lakh crore under the PM-KISAN scheme to more than 11 crore farmer families.

 

Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme, a financial benefit of Rs 6,000 per year is provided to the eligible farmer families, payable in three equal installments of Rs 2,000.

 

'With this investment, the agriculture sector is witnessing major transformations today,' he said, and small farmers of the country have also benefited from the new changes in the crop insurance scheme.

 

More than Rs 1 lakh crore have been given as compensation to about 8 crore farmers since these changes were introduced, he added.

 

Mentioning that the government is also making investments at an unprecedented level for developing infrastructure required near farmlands, Kovind said thousands of projects have been approved under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund having a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore.

 

In order to ensure self-sufficiency in edible oil, the Modi-government has also launched the National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm with an outlay of Rs 11,000 crore. The government is also making special efforts like organic farming, natural farming and crop diversification, he added.

 

Further, the government is working for rain water conservation. Special campaigns are being implemented for creation of rain water harvesting infrastructure and restoration of traditional water sources in the country.

 

The President said 64 lakh hectares of land with irrigation facilities has also been developed in the country with the help of various projects under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana and Atal Bhu-jal Yojana.

 

The government has also taken forward the plans for interlinking of rivers. Recently, the Ken-Betwa link project to be completed at a cost of Rupees 45,000 crore has also been approved. This project will be helpful in ending the water crisis in Bundelkhand.

 

That apart, Kovind shared that the United Nations has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets and the government willl celebrate next year on a large scale with farmers, Self-Help Groups, FPOs, food industry and the common citizen.

 

 

India to witness GDP growth of 8.0-8.5 per cent in 2022-23, supported by widespread vaccine coverage, gains from supply-side reforms and easing of regulations, robust export growth, and availability of fiscal space to ramp up capital spending.

 

The Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Economic Survey 2021-22 in Parliament today, which states that the year ahead is well poised for a pick-up in private sector investment with the financial system in a good position to provide support to the revival of economy. The growth projection for 2022-23 is based on the assumption that there will be no further debilitating pandemic related economic disruption, monsoon will be normal, withdrawal of global liquidity by major central banks will be broadly orderly, oil prices will be in the range of US$70-$75/bbl, and global supply chain disruptions will steadily ease over the course of the year.

 

The Survey says, the above projection is comparable with the World Bank’s and Asian Development Bank’s latest forecasts of real GDP growth of 8.7 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively for 2022-23. As per the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) growth projections released on 25th January, 2022, India’s real GDP is projected to grow at 9 per cent in both 2021-22 and 2022-23 and at 7.1 per cent in 2023-24. This projects India as the fastest growing major economy in the world in all these three years.

 

Referring to First Advance Estimates, the Survey states that the Indian economy is estimated to grow by 9.2 per cent in real terms in 2021-22, after a contraction of 7.3 per cent in 2020-21. This implies that overall economic activity has recovered past the pre-pandemic levels. Almost all indicators show that the economic impact of the 'second wave' in Q1 was much smaller than that experienced during the full lockdown phase in 2020-21, even though the health impact was more severe.

 

Dwelling on the sectoral aspects, the Survey states that Agriculture and allied sectors have been the least impacted by the pandemic and the sector is expected to grow by 3.9 per cent in 2021-22 after growing by 3.6 per cent in the previous year. The area sown under Kharif and Rabi crops, and the production of wheat and rice has been steadily increasing over the years. In the current year, food grains production for the Kharif season is estimated to post a record level of 150.5 million tonnes. Moreover, procurement of food grains under the central pool accordingly maintained its rising trend in 2021-22 along with minimum support prices, which augur well for national food security and farmers’ incomes. Importantly, the strong performance of the sector was supported by Government policies that ensured timely supplies of seed and fertilizers despite pandemic related disruptions. It was helped by good monsoon rains as reflected in reservoir levels being higher than the 10-year average.

 

According to Survey, the industrial sector went through a sharp rebound  from a contraction of 7 per cent in 2020-21 to an expansion of  11.8 per cent in this financial year. The manufacturing, construction and mining sub-sectors went through the same swing although the utilities segment experienced a more muted cycle as basic services such as electricity and water supply were maintained even at the height of the national lockdown. The share of industry in GVA is now estimated at 28.2 per cent.

 

The Survey states that the services sector has been the hardest hit by the pandemic, especially segments that involve human contact.  This sector is estimated to grow by 8.2 per cent this financial year following last year’s 8.4 per cent contraction. It should be noted that there is a wide dispersion of performance by different sub-sectors. Both the finance /Real Estate and the Public Administration segments are now well above pre-COVID levels. However, segments like Travel, Trade and hotels are yet to fully recover. There has been a boom in software and IT-enabled services exports even as earnings from tourism have declined sharply.

 

The Survey added that total consumption is estimated to have grown by 7.0 per cent in 2021-22 with government consumption remaining the biggest contributor as in the previous year. Government consumption is estimated to grow by a strong 7.6 per cent surpassing pre-pandemic levels. Private consumption is also estimated to have improved significantly to recover 97 per cent of corresponding pre-pandemic output level and it is poised to see stronger recovery with rapid coverage in vaccination and faster normalization of economic activity.

 

According to the Survey, Investment, as measured by Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) is expected to see strong growth of 15 per cent in 2021-22 and achieve full recovery of pre-pandemic level. Government’s policy thrust on quickening virtuous cycle of growth via capex and infrastructure spending has increased capital formation in the economy lifting the investment of GDP ratio to about 29.6 per cent in 2021-22, the highest in seven years. While private investment recovery is still at a nascent stage, there are many signals which indicate that India is poised for stronger investment. A sturdy and cleaned-up banking sector stands ready to support private investment adequately.

 

On the Exports and Imports front, the Survey states that India’s exports of both goods and services have been exceptionally strong so far in 2021-22. Merchandise exports have been above US$30 billion for eight consecutive months in 2021-22, despite many pandemic related global supply constraints. Net services exports have also risen sharply, driven by professional and management consulting services, audio visual and related services, freight transport services, telecommunications, computer and information services. From a demand perspective, India’s total exports are expected to grow by 16.5 per cent in 2021-22 surpassing pre-pandemic levels. Imports also recovered strongly with revival of domestic demand and continuous rise in price of imported crude and metals. Imports are expected to grow by 29.4 per cent in 2021-22 surpassing corresponding pre-pandemic levels. Resultantly, India’s net exports have turned negative in the first half of 2021-22, compared to a surplus in the corresponding period of 2020-21. But current account deficit is expected to remain within manageable limits.

 

Further, the Survey points out that despite all the disruptions caused by the global pandemic, India’s balance of payments remained in surplus throughout the last two years. This allowed the Reserve Bank of India to keep accumulating foreign exchange reserves, which stand at US$634 billion on 31st December 2021. This is equivalent to 13.2 months of imports and higher than the country’s external debt.

 

The Survey notes that inflation has reappeared as a global issue in both advanced and emerging economies. The surge in energy prices, non-food commodities, input prices, disruption of global supply chains, and rising freight costs stoked global inflation during the year. In India, Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation moderated to 5.2 per cent in 2021-22 (April-December) from 6.6 per cent in the corresponding period of 2020-21. It was 5.6 per cent (YoY) in December 2021, which is within the targeted tolerance band. The decline in retail inflation in 2021-22 was led by easing of food inflation. Wholesale Price Inflation (WPI), however, has been running in double-digits.

 

The Survey says that fiscal support given to the economy as well as the health response caused the fiscal deficit and government debt to rise in 2020-21. However, there has been a strong rebound in government revenues in 2021-22 so far. The revenue receipts of the central government during April-November 2021 have gone up by 67.2 per cent (YOY), as against an expected growth of 9.6 per cent in the 2021-22 Budget Estimates over provisional actuals. The tax collections have been buoyant for both direct and indirect taxes and the gross monthly GST collections have crossed Rs 1 lakh crore consistently since July 2021.

 

It adds that on the account of a sustained revenue collection and a targeted expenditure policy by the Government of India, the fiscal deficit for April-November 2021 has been contained at 46.2 per cent of Budget Estimates (BE) which is nearly one third of the proportion reached during the same period of the previous two years (135.1% of BE in April-November 2020 and 114.8% of BE in April-November 2019).

 

The Survey points out that the financial sector is always a possible area of stress during turbulent times. However, India’s capital markets have done exceptionally well and have allowed record mobilization of risk capital of Indian companies. The Sensex and Nifty scaled up to touch its peak at 61,766 and 18,477 on October 18, 2021. Rs 89,066 crore was raised via 75 IPO issues in April- November 2021, much higher than in any year in the last decade. Moreover, the banking system is well capitalized and NPAs seems to have structurally declined. The Gross Non-Performing Advances (GNPA) ratio (i.e. GNPAs as a percentage of Gross Advances) and Net Non-Performing Advances (NNPA) ratio of Scheduled Commercial banks (SCBs) continued to decline since 2018-19. GNPA ratio of SCBs decreased from 7.5 per cent at end-September 2020 to 6.9 per cent at end-September 2021.

 

The Survey expresses that another distinguishing feature of India’s economic response has been an emphasis on supply-side reforms rather than a total reliance on demand management. These supply-side reforms include deregulation of numerous sectors, simplification of processes, removal of legacy issues like ‘retrospective tax’, privatization, production-linked incentives and so on. Even the sharp increase in capital spending by the Government can be seen as both demand and supply response as it creates infrastructure capacity for future growth.

 

There are two common themes in India’s supply-side strategy: (i) Reforms that improve flexibility and innovation in order to deal with the long-term unpredictability of the post-Covid world. This includes factor market reforms; deregulation of sectors like space, drones, geospatial mapping, trade finance factoring; process reforms like those in government procurement and in telecommunications sector; removal of legacy issues like retrospective tax; privatization and monetization, creation of physical infrastructure, and so on. (ii) Reforms aimed at improving the resilience o the Indian economy. These range from climate/environment related policies; social infrastructure such as public provision of tap water, toilets, basic housing, insurance for the poor, and so on; support for key industries under Atmanirbhar Bharat; a strong emphasis on reciprocity in foreign trade agreements, and so on.

 

An important theme that has been discussed through the course of the Economic Survey is that of ‘process reforms’. It is important to distinguish between deregulation and process reforms. The former relates to reducing or removing the role of government from a particular activity. In contrast, the latter broadly relates to simplification and smoothening of the process for activities where the government’s presence as a facilitator or regulator is necessary.

 

The Survey points out that the last two years have been difficult for the world economy on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. Repeated waves of infection, supply-chain disruptions and more recently, global inflation have created particularly challenging times for policy-making. Faced with these challenges, the Government of India opted for a ‘ Barbell Strategy' that combined a bouquet of safety-nets to cushion the impact on vulnerable sections of society and the business sector. It next pushed through a significant increase in capital expenditure on infrastructure to build back medium-term demand as well as aggressively implemented supply-side measures to prepare the economy for the sustained long-term expansion. This flexible and multi-layered approach is partly based on an 'Agile' framework that used feedback-loops, and the monitoring of real-time data.

 

The Survey underlines that Monetary policy since the outbreak of the pandemic was calibrated to provide a cushion and support growth, but carefully controlled in order to avoid the medium term dislocations of excess liquidity. An important aspect of the safety-net was the use of Government guarantees to provide access to financial support to the economy in general and MSMEs in particular. In the last two years, government leveraged an array of eighty High Frequency Indicators (HFIs) representing industry, services, global trends, macro-stability indicators and several other activities, from both public and private sources to gauge the underlying state of the economy on a real-time basis. These HFIs helped policy makers tailor their response to an evolving situation rather than rely on pre-defined responses of a Waterfall framework, which has been the conventional method for framing policy in India and most of the world.

 

In conclusion, the Survey is quite optimistic that overall macro-economic stability indicators suggest that the Indian Economy is well placed to take on the challenges of 2022-23 and one of the reasons that the Indian Economy is in good position is its unique response strategy.

As 2022 was the target year for doubling farmers’ income, the Economic Survey has said that while there was 22.6 per cent increase in net income from crop production, the growth in net receipts from other sources surged by 92.6 per cent between 2014 and 2019. If the suggestion of the Survey to focus more on non-farm businesses is an indication, the animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries sectors can expect a substantial increase in allocation of funds in the FY2022-23 Budget as it may also help maintain agriculture growth around 4 per cent.

 

The agriculture and the allied sector has proved resilient to the Covid-19 shock as it is seen to grow at 3.9 per cent in 2021-22 as against 3.6 per cent in 2020-21.

 

Income from crop production

The share of income from crop production in the total income of farmers has declined to 37 per cent in 2019 from 48 per cent in 2014 is in line with the government’s policy for diversification in the sources of income. On the other hand, the share of wage/salary in the total income has gone up to 40 per cent from 32 per cent.

 

According to the Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of National Statistical Office’s (NSO), released last year, the average monthly income of an agricultural household has gone up to Rs10,218 from Rs6,426, up by 59 per cent.

 

The allocation for the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying was increased by 23 per cent to Rs4,820.82 crore during 2021-22 (BE) from Rs3,918.31 crore 2020-21 (RE). Many experts have pointed out that there is need to sustain such a hike in allocation for next few years as growth in both the livestock and dairy sector was subdued in 2019-20 compared to previous three years.

 

'Without much increase in crop productivity, growth in farmers income is unlikely to see any significant increase. There is need for scientific breakthrough as seen in case of sugarcane with CO238 variety and in Basmati with Pusa 1121/1509,' said former Union Agriculture Secretary Siraj Hussain.

 

Research and development and its application in agriculture and allied sectors can play a major role in realisation of sustainable agriculture practice that efficiently meets the objectives of nutritional security and improvement in farm income, the Survey said.

 

Stressing on the importance of agriculture research amid dwindling land holding, it further said: 'Increasing number of small farmers and increasing importance of livestock sector requires increased focus on the measures like development of small farm technology, boosting non-farm businesses and development of allied activities including animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries.'

 

The average size of household ownership holdings has declined from 0.725 hectare in 2003 to 0.512 hectare in 2019. There is a need to improve productivity of small and marginal farmers through customised technology for them, it said.

The Union Budget seeks to complement macro-economic level growth with a focus on micro-economic level all inclusive welfare. The Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Union Budget 2022-23 in Parliament today.

 

The key highlights of the budget are as follows:

 

PART A

 

* India’s economic growth estimated at 9.2% to be the highest among all large economies.

 

* 60 lakh new jobs to be created under the productivity linked incentive scheme in 14 sectors.

 

* PLI Schemes have the potential to create an additional production of Rs 30 lakh crore.

Entering Amrit Kaal, the 25 year long lead up to India @100, the budget provides impetus for growth along four priorities:

 

* PM GatiShakti

 

* Inclusive Development

 

* Productivity Enhancement & Investment, Sunrise opportunities, Energy Transition, and Climate Action.

 

* Financing of investments

 

 

PM GatiShakti

 

The seven engines that drive PM GatiShakti are Roads, Railways, Airports, Ports, Mass Transport, Waterways and Logistics Infrastructure.

PM GatiShkati National Master Plan

 

The scope of PM GatiShakti National Master Plan will encompass the seven engines for economic transformation, seamless multimodal connectivity and logistics efficiency.

The projects pertaining to these 7 engines in the National Infrastructure Pipeline will be aligned with PM GatiShakti framework.

 

 

Road Transport

 

National Highways Network to be expanded by 25000 Km in 2022-23.

Rs 20000 Crore to be mobilized for National Highways Network expansion.

Multimodal Logistics Parks

 

Contracts to be awarded through PPP mode in 2022-23 for implementation of Multimodal Logistics Parks at four locations.

Railways

 

One Station One Product concept to help local businesses & supply chains.

2000 Km of railway network to be brought under Kavach, the indigenous world class technology and capacity augmentation in 2022-23.

400 new generation Vande Bharat Trains to be manufactured during the next three years.

100 PM GatiShakti Cargo terminals for multimodal logistics to be developed during the next three years.

 

 

Parvatmala

 

National Ropeways Development Program, Parvatmala to be taken up on PPP mode.

Contracts to be awarded in 2022-23 for 8 ropeway projects of 60 Km length.

Inclusive Development

 

Agriculture

 

Rs. 2.37 lakh crore direct payment to 1.63 crore farmers for procurement of wheat and paddy.

Chemical free Natural farming to be promoted throughout the county. Initial focus is on farmer’s lands in 5 Km wide corridors along river Ganga.

 

NABARD to facilitate fund with blended capital to finance startups for agriculture & rural enterprise.

 

‘Kisan Drones’ for crop assessment, digitization of land records, spraying of insecticides and nutrients.

 

Ken Betwa project

 

1400 crore outlay for implementation of the Ken – Betwa link project.

9.08 lakh hectares of farmers’ lands to receive irrigation benefits by Ken-Betwa link project.

MSME

 

Udyam, e-shram, NCS and ASEEM portals to be interlinked.

 

130 lakh MSMEs provided additional credit under Emergency Credit Linked Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS)

ECLGS to be extended up to March 2023.

 

Guarantee cover under ECLGS to be expanded by Rs 50000 Crore to total cover of Rs 5 Lakh Crore.

Rs 2 lakh Crore additional credit for Micro and Small Enterprises to be facilitated under the Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE).

Raising and Accelerating MSME performance (RAMP) programme with outlay of Rs 6000 Crore to be rolled out.

 

Skill Development

 

Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood (DESH-Stack e-portal) will be launched to empower citizens to skill, reskill or upskill through on-line training.

 

· Startups will be promoted to facilitate ‘Drone Shakti’ and for Drone-As-A-Service (DrAAS).

 

Education

 

‘One class-One TV channel’ programme of PM eVIDYA to be expanded to 200 TV channels.

· Virtual labs and skilling e-labs to be set up to promote critical thinking skills and simulated learning environment.

 

· High-quality e-content will be developed for delivery through Digital Teachers.

 

· Digital University for world-class quality universal education with personalised learning experience to be established.

 

Health

 

An open platform for National Digital Health Ecosystem to be rolled out.

· ‘National Tele Mental Health Programme’ for quality mental health counselling and care services to be launched.

 

A network of 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence will be set up, with NIMHANS being the nodal centre and International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIITB) providing technology support.

 

 

Saksham Anganwadi

 

Integrated benefits to women and children through Mission Shakti, Mission Vatsalya, Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0.

Two lakh anganwadis to be upgraded to Saksham Anganwadis.

 

 

Har Ghar, Nal Se Jal

 

Rs. 60,000 crore allocated to cover 3.8 crore households in 2022-23 under Har Ghar, Nal se Jal.

 

 

Housing for All

 

Rs. 48,000 crore allocated for completion of 80 lakh houses in 2022-23 under PM Awas Yojana.

 

 

Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North-East Region (PM-DevINE)

 

 New scheme PM-DevINE launched to fund infrastructure and social development projects in the North-East.

An initial allocation of Rs. 1,500 crore made to enable livelihood activities for youth and women under the scheme.

 

 

Vibrant Villages Programme

 

Vibrant Villages Programme for development of Border villages with sparse population, limited connectivity and infrastructure on the northern border.

 

 

Banking

 

100 per cent of 1.5 lakh post offices to come on the core banking system.

Scheduled Commercial Banks to set up 75 Digital Banking Units (DBUs) in 75 districts.

 

 

e-Passport

 

e-Passports with embedded chip and futuristic technology to be rolled out.

 

 

Urban Planning

 

Modernization of building byelaws, Town Planning Schemes (TPS), and Transit Oriented Development (TOD) will be implemented.

Battery swapping policy to be brought out for setting up charging stations at scale in urban areas.

 

 

Land Records Management

 

Unique Land Parcel Identification Number for IT-based management of land records.

 

 

Accelerated Corporate Exit

 

Centre for Processing Accelerated Corporate Exit (C-PACE) to be established for speedy winding-up of companies.

 

 

AVGC Promotion Task Force

 

An animation, visual effects, gaming, and comic (AVGC) promotion task force to be set-up to realize the potential of this sector.

 

 

Telecom Sector

 

Scheme for design-led manufacturing to be launched to build a strong ecosystem for 5G as part of the Production Linked Incentive Scheme.

 

 

Export Promotion

 

Special Economic Zones Act to be replaced with a new legislation to enable States to become partners in ‘Development of Enterprise and Service Hubs’.