Budget 2022: Nirmala Sitharaman announces Kisan Drones for FY22-23

Budget 2022: Highlighting inclusive development as one of the four main priorities for the government, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the Centre will focus on promoting Kisan drones, chemical-free natural farming as well as public-private partnerships for the delivery of digital and high-tech services to farmers. Government will take this step in order to enable more efficient farming techniques for all farmers in India. This new initiative will witness farmers getting access to drones for crop assessment, digitization of land records and spraying insecticides on the fields to protect them from damage.

Sitharaman also announced that the government will facilitate a fund with blended capital raised under the co-investment model through NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) in order to give financial assistance to agri-startups and rural enterprises. These startups will be working in inter-area support FPO (Farmer-Producer Organization), building and providing machinery for farmers on a rental basis as well as bringing forth newer technologies to help farmers.

Budget 2022: Initiatives to help the agriculture sector

In Addition to Kisan drones, the centre will also promote chemical-free natural farming across the nation. A special emphasis will be given on farm lands in the five kilometer wide corridors along river Ganga in the first stage. In subsequent stages, this initiative will be spread to other regions as well, the finance minister announced in Budget 2022.

Another important area of focus for the Centre will be reducing the country’s dependence on imports of edible oil. In order to tackle this challenge, Sitharaman said a rationalized and comprehensive scheme will be implemented that will lead to increasing the production of oilseed domestically.

Government is also looking at boosting production capacity and efficiency of farmers. Presenting the Budget 2022, Sitharaman said that the government will be launching a scheme of public-private partnership or PPP model to deliver digital and high-tech services to farmers. This model will see the public sector extending its research and institutions to private agritech enterprises and other stakeholders of the agriculture value chain. An emphasis on sustainable organic farming education will also be given. “States will be encouraged to revise the syllabi of agricultural universities in order to meet the needs of natural zero budget and organic farming, modern day agriculture, value addition and management,” she said.

"While the general trend of the union budget 2022 has its emphasis on ease of doing business, I strongly believe, data and digital occupied the centerpiece of the budget. The plans to focus and promote the fintech and digital economy are a very strong positive move. New age technologies, keeping data and digital at heart of it will allow the tech enablers to transform multiple industries. For MSMEs, the government has plans to outlay ₹2 trillion which is again a welcoming move that will help in enhancing startups as well as entrepreneurial opportunities for all. Besides, extension on tax exemption to startups and promotion of startups to facilitate ‘Drone Shakti’ through varied applications and drones as a service is also encouraging. The ambitious optical fibre to the villages under PPP in 2022-23 shall get the next 100M in the Digital Universe soon. To sum up, it’s a positive budget for the digital sector which has always vouched for a strong digital infrastructure in the country," said Sahil Chopra, Founder & CEO- iCubesWire.