Budget 2023: Agriculture sector envisages incentives for innovative technologies

With millions of Indians mainly dependent on agriculture, this sector has always been a major focus of the Union Budget, especially in recent years. The industry hopes that the government's Union Budget 2023 will support interventions that will enable farmers to sustainably increase their income this year as well. R&D (RandD) funding should be provided in the 2023 budget to create new, safer and more effective methods. weed, disease and pest control in chemical and biological streams.

Companies engaged in such research and development can be encouraged to invest more with the help of various incentives. In addition, the sector needs additional government support in the form of incentives such as Production Linked Incentives (PLI) to maximize agricultural production in 2023. Data from the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation shows that the agricultural sector will grow by 3.6% in 2020-21 and 3.9% in 2021-22.

During the Covid-19 crisis, the industry has shown remarkable resilience. In addition to the food crisis, climate change, supply chain issues, inflation and geopolitical issues disrupted every economy and triggered a global recession in 2022, making it widely recognized as a difficult year for the global agriculture and food industry. The promotion of new technologies, especially those aimed at combating climate change, must be a key focus of the Union's 2023 budget. Both profitability and productivity of farmers benefit from new technologies.

Rationalization of the minimum support price policy by the government is also expected to encourage crop diversification. To meet the country's food quality requirements, soil fertility and trace elements are essential. Therefore, imposing a tax corresponding to the tax on micronutrients and bulk fertilizers gives farmers the opportunity to use these products to improve the quantity, as well as the quality, of their products. In fact, measures such as depositing support funds directly into farmers' bank accounts allow them to choose which products and services they use to increase the productivity of the agricultural sector. Thanks to this, the country's export plans are also accelerating.