TARGETED EFFORTS FOR INCREASING FARMERS’ INCOME, EMPOWERING DIVYANGJAN, EMPOWERING THE VULNERABLE , FOCUS ON THE PURVODAYA STATES AND THE NORTH-EAST REGION

Presenting the Union Budget 2026-27 in Parliament today, the Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the third Kartavya, aligns with the Government’s vision of Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas, to ensure that every family, community, region and sector has access to resources, amenities and opportunities for meaningful participation.

The Finance Minister laid down a broad roadmap for achieving the third Kartavya. Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman said, “This requires targeted efforts for a) Increasing farmer incomes through productivity enhancement and entrepreneurship, with special access attention to small and marginal farmers; b) Empowering Divyangjan through to livelihood opportunities, training and high-quality assistive devices; c) Empowering the vulnerable to access mental health and trauma care; d) Focus on the Purvodaya States and the North-East Region to accelerate development and employment opportunities.“

Increasing Farmer’s Income

Under the broad objective of Increasing Farmer Incomes, the Budget includes provisions for integrated development of 500 reservoirs and Amrit Sarovars, strengthening the fisheries value chain in coastal areas and enabling market linkages involving start-ups and women-led groups together with Fish Farmers Producer Organisations.

Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman stated that Animal Husbandry will be one of the key areas for increasing farmers’ income. To provide quality employment opportunities in rural and peri-urban areas, Government will support the Animal Husbandry Sector in entrepreneurship development through: (a) a Credit-Linked Subsidy Programme (b) scaling-up and modernisation of livestock enterprises (c) enhance creation of livestock, dairy and poultry-focused integrated-value chains and (d) encourage creation of Livestock Farmer Producers Organisations.

The Union Finance Minister laid stress on high Value Agriculture by supporting high value crops such as coconut, sandalwood, cocoa and cashew in the coastal areas. Agar trees in North East and nuts such as, almonds, walnuts and pine nuts in our hilly regions will also be supported.

Smt. Sitharaman said, “India is the world’s largest producer of coconuts. About 30 million people, including nearly 10 million farmers, depend on coconuts for their livelihood. To further enhance competitiveness in coconut production, I propose a Coconut Promotion Scheme to increase production and enhance productivity through various interventions 16 including replacing old and non-productive trees with new saplings/plants/varieties in major coconut growing States.”

As another step towards the objective of increasing farmers’ income, the Union Budget 2026-27 has also proposed a dedicated programme for Indian cashew and cocoa to make India self-reliant in raw cashew and cocoa production and processing, enhance export competitiveness and transform Indian Cashew and Indian Cocoa into premium global brands by 2030.

Union Government will also partner with State Governments to promote focused cultivation and post-harvest processing to restore the glory of the Indian Sandalwood ecosystem.

To rejuvenate old, low-yielding orchards and expand high-density cultivation of walnuts, almonds and pine nuts, the Budget proposes to support a dedicated programme to enhance farmer incomes and in bringing value addition by engaging youth.

Bharat-VISTAAR (Virtually Integrated System to Access Agricultural Resources)

Union Minister for Finance and Corporate affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman announced the proposal to launch Bharat-VISTAAR (Virtually Integrated System to Access Agricultural Resources).VISTAAR is envisaged as a multilingual AI tool that shall integrate the AgriStack portals and the ICAR package on agricultural practices with AI systems. This will enhance farm productivity, enable better decisions for farmers and reduce risk by providing customized advisory support.