Business as usual in agri-food space

Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) was allocated ₹95,692 crore, while the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act saw a massive cut from ₹88,000 crore in FY26 (RE) to ₹30,000 crore (FY27).

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The Viksit Bharat vision cannot be realised without a stronger, more productive rural economy. Development expenses are the only way to improve livelihoods, through sustained income growth. This is where the Budget falls short of its own long-term ambitions — the share of welfare measures and subsidies is much higher than the entire MoAFW budget.

Our prescription to address this imbalance is straightforward: invest in agri-R&D. India spends less than 0.5% of its agri-GDP on R&D, well below the 1% benchmark linked with sustained productivity growth. Research at ICRIER

₹3.90 lakh crore allocated for food and fertiliser subsidy, nearly 7.45% of the Budget expenditure