Allocation for agriculture must signal change in favour of science, tech, private investments

The restrictions on agricultural marketing and the difficulty of doing business have had a chilling effect on corporate investments in agriculture The Union Budget is not the only occasion to make changes in policy, but like the US President’s State of the Union address, it is a platform for the government to declare how it proposes to improve people’s incomes, reduce disparities and enhance economic efficiency. In July last year, farmer-members of Maharashtra’s Shetkari Sanghatana planted unapproved herbicide-tolerant Bt cotton and publicised their protest for ‘freedom to access technology.’ They risked arrest and jail sentences but the government backed off. In the first week of January, it invited journalists to Akola for a ‘Celebration of GM Crops.’ “I am in favour of any kind of technology with proper safeguards,” says agricultural economist and NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand. The challenge, he says, is to sustain agricultural growth while keeping food price inflation within acceptable limits and incentivise farmers to produce more without hurting consumers.