Ashok Dalwai, chairman of Empowered Body on Doubling Farmers’ Income, said, “The focus of this year’s budget is pivoted around growth, income and jobs in the rural sector linked to agriculture; diversification of agriculture beyond crops to livestock and fisheries; and special attention to deficit crops like seasonal oilseeds…”
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the government will formulate a strategy to achieve ‘Atmanirbharta’ for oilseeds such as mustard, groundnut, sesame, soybean and sunflower.
The central government had announced the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) in August 2021. India meets 60% of its cooking oil requirement through imports, which stand at ₹1.35 lakh crore per annum.
“We need massive efforts to raise the productivity of oilseeds…” said Atul Chaturvedi, special adviser, Solvent Extractors Association (SEA), “We hope that the government will now approve GM mustard seeds to increase the productivity of mustard.”
Companies in the dairy sector say increasing productivity is the right approach as it also increases farmers’ income.Jayen Mehta, MD of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, which owns the Amul brand, said, “The proposed comprehensive programme for supporting dairy farmers will help India achieve the dream of becoming the ‘dairy to the world’.”The Union Cabinet has approved continuation of the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) under Infrastructure Development Fund (IDF) with an outlay of ₹29,610.25 crore till 2025-26. India’s aquaculture exports in 2023-24 were flat, after having grown in double digits during the last decade. Industry players say that focus on increasing productivity at the farm level will help improve its global competitiveness by reducing cost of production.
“The production of shrimp at farm level is a matter of concern. We need better technology to improve productivity and cheaper input costs for farmers to reduce the cost of production,” said G Pavan Kumar, president, Seafood Exporters’ Association of India.
The finance minister also announced the creation of “Blue Economy 2.0” for promoting climate-resilient activities in the coastal areas. Coastal aquaculture has become unsustainable due to over exploitation. While mariculture, which mainly refers to the fish catch, has been growing, it faces challenges with certain species being on the verge of extinction.
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