Farmer’s welfare and boosting rural demand is one of the main highlights of the Interim Budget 2024-25 presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Thursday.

The Minister informed that Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana has benefitted 38 lakh farmers and generated 10 lakh employment.

Sitharaman said the minimum support prices for the produce of ‘Annadata’ were periodically increased appropriately. Every year, under PM-KISAN SAMMAN Yojana, direct financial assistance was provided to 11.8 crore farmers, including marginal and small farmers, while crop insurance was given to 4 crore farmers under PM Fasal Bima Yojana, she said.

The Minister stated that these, besides several other programmes, were assisting ‘Annadata’ in producing food for the country and the world and added that the worries about food have been eliminated through free ration for 80 crore people.

Sitharaman promised to further promote private and public investment in post-harvest activities including aggregation, modern storage, efficient supply chains, primary and secondary processing and marketing and branding to ensure faster growth of the agriculture and food processing sector.

“The sector is poised for inclusive, balanced, higher growth and productivity. These are facilitated from farmer-centric policies, income support, coverage of risks through price and insurance support, promotion of technologies and innovations through start-ups.”, the Finance Minister mentioned in her speech.

She said Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Yojana has assisted 2.4 lakh SHGs and 60,000 individuals with credit linkages, adding that other schemes were complementing the efforts for reducing post-harvest losses, and improving productivity and incomes.

Electronic National Agriculture Market has integrated 1,361 mandis, and was providing services to 1.8 crore farmers with trading volume of Rs 3 lakh crore, she informed, adding that “These and the provision of basic necessities have enhanced real income in the rural areas. Their economic needs could be addressed, thus spurring growth and generating jobs.”

The Finance Minister stated that a strategy will be formulated to achieve ‘atmanirbharta’ for oil seeds such as mustard, groundnut, sesame, soybean, and sunflower.

This will cover research for high-yielding varieties, widespread adoption of modern farming techniques, market linkages, procurement, value addition, and crop insurance.

“After the successful adoption of Nano Urea, application of Nano DAP on various crops will be expanded in all agro-climatic zones.” Union Finance Minister mentioned in her speech.