NEW DELHI: With an aim to double the income of the farmers by 2022, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Union Budget proposal for 2017-18 pegged farm credit at Rs 10 lakh crore, besides hiking budgetary allocation to the agriculture and rural sector by about 24 per cent to about Rs 1.78 lakh crores.
The Finance Minister, while drawing confidence from the expectations of the agriculture registering about 4.1 per cent growth in the current financial year, said that the reforms in the agricultural produce marketing laws along with growing coverage of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna would further push the agrarian growth.
The minister also proposed a create a dedicated micro-irrigation fund of Rs 5000 crore with the NABARD. He also proposed to set up 688 mini-labs in Kisan Vikas Kendras in the country to give a boost to the reforms in the agriculture sector.
The minister also proposed that the e-NAM (National Agriculture Market) would be linked to the commodities market to allow farmers access better prices for their produces.
The finance minister also allocated a record Rs 48000 crores for the National Rural Employments Guarantee Scheme for the next financial year.