Zero-budget Farming Needs On-ground Trials

EVERY BUDGET HAS EXPECTATIONS FROM A wide cross section of society from the young to the elderly, from farmers to industrialists, and from investors to consumers.

- Ajay S.Shriram

This year, there was an added hype as a new government had been installed with an erudite lady Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. True to her image, she presented a Budget that was balanced, shorn of hype and with a long-term roadmap. The Budget also eflected that as a country, we have moved on, and many pressing rural issues such as sanitation, financial services, roads, clean energy, farm insurance have been largely dealt with. It was now time to shift gears to the next phase. The fact that she said: “Ease of Doing Business and Ease of Living both should apply to farmers’ too” is a change from the past. There is also recognition that farming is a business and therefore the focus is on farmer income, plus there is an effort on improving quality of life.