No central budget, be it regular or interim, can ignore agriculture, the backbone of India’s economy. So, it was no surprise that the Interim Budget 2009-10 presented to parliament on February 16th set great store by these two sectors impacting more than two-thirds of its one billion plus population. It has a slew of salient features that seek to promote and develop the two sectors. While doing so, government has also gratefully acknowledged the great contribution of the farmers towards the overall economic growth by assuring food security for the country. “Through their hard work, they ensured “food security” for the country, Mr Mukherjee said in his budget
speech.
With record procurement of 22.7 million tonnes of wheat and 28.5 million tonnes of rice for our Public Distribution System in 2008, our granaries are full,” Mr. Mukherjee said. He duly acknowledged agriculture as one of the growth drivers of the economy that grew from 7.5 per cent to a high of 9.7 per cent between 2004-05 and 2007- 08. The real heroes of India’s success story were our farmers, he noted.