Budget 2019: With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) all set to present the sixth budget, the most traditional occupation of India i.e. agriculture needs the government to come up with goals that are SMART i.e. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Bound. The BJP must tackle issues of Agriculture sector like a critical project that needs a monthly or quarterly project report, in the same fashion as projects are handled in large corporates and hence real results are attained. When the Modi government says that it aims to double farmers income by 2022, it should back its claim with a projection report that contains data like any other industry, that talks about point by point tangible reforms and hence results.

Agriculture Sector – the road so far and the way Ahead!

Interim Budget 2019 need not be populist, the political parties must make a shift from wooing the vote banks with freebies, and rather focus on fiscal prudence and pull all department heads from time to time rather than holding them accountable at the end of the year, before making budgets for the next fiscal year.

The casual approach in India of making great announcements followed by large claims needs to change. The incumbent, Modi government has taken quite some bold measures during its tenure and has allocated lakhs of crores towards various agriculture funds to improve farm credit, warehousing, irrigation, infrastructure as well as farmer’s income.

Know the impact of BJP’s Last Five Budgets on Agriculture Sector

However, the government was not successful in changing the perception of farmers, who ditched BJP in the December 2018 state polls and resorted to voting the opposition in favour of farm debt waivers.

For the agriculture sector, the Bharatiya Janta Party and Finance Minister have come up with time to time reforms, measures and funds. For Budget 2019 being the last budget of his current tenure, it is highly expected from FM Arun Jaitley to present a report card of the last five years, and announce the requisite reforms to get the desired results in the times ahead.