Jaitley announces freebies in budget, saying farmers welfare a priority

New Delhi: The government is committed to the welfare of farmers, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said here on Thursday while announcing measures for addressing agrarian distress, particularly the 1.5 times increase in the minimum support price of farm produce.Presenting the Union Budget for 2018-19, Mr Jaitley also announced setting up a agriculture corpus of Rs 2000 crore. He also raised the institutional farm credit to Rs 11 lakh crore from Rs 10 lakh crore last year.

Focusing considerable attention of the farm sector in view of the recent agitations by farmers’ organizations, the Finance Minister announced a Operation Green on the lines of Operation Flood in dairy sector to provide logistics and management for perishables like tomato, potato and onions. He said the Kisan Credit Card scheme will be extended for availing loans in fisheries and animal husbandry sector as well. For now, farmers can avail loan upto Rs 3 lakh on a Kisan Credit Card for crops alone.

Mr Jaitley declared tax concessions for Farmer-Producer Organisations and said cluster-based FPOs will be encouraged under the Rural Livelihood Mission. Self-Help Groups will be able to join in.Organic farming and medicinal plants farming will be encourage with additional finding. Libralised mega food parks with state of the art facilities to help food processing industries and raise exports to 100 billion dollars level will be set up. Bamboo growing and farmers using solar water pumps will be encouraged.To increase farm irrigation, particularly micro irrigation, the Finance Minister announced more infusion under NABARD. This fund will also be used for Command Area Development.(UNI)