As the FY27 budget approaches, the country’s agriculture industry is urging the government to rethink how it supports the sector, pushing for increased spending on technology, digital systems and climate-smart infrastructure to enable long-term growth. The sector employs almost 45% of the country’s workforce but contributes less than a fifth of gross value added. Industry leaders argue that Budget 2026-27 is a crucial moment to move agriculture beyond a welfare-oriented approach and position it as a sustainable contributor to economic growth. “Agriculture is increasingly being recognized not just as a welfare sector but as a credible engine of economic growth – one that can drive productivity, employment, rural demand and resilience,” Amit Vatsyayan, head of GPS agriculture, livelihoods, social and skills at EY India, told PTI. Dairy industry points to targeted interventions Within agriculture, the organized dairy segment is looking for targeted political support. Brahmani Nara, Managing Director, Heritage Foods Ltd, said that after the GST rationalization introduced in September 2025, consumer demand has shifted in favor of protein-rich and health-oriented products such as paneer, cheese, ghee and butter. She noted that programs such as the Rashtriya Gokul Mission and the National Digital Livestock Mission have already brought more than 3,000,000 farmers into the formal system. To build on this progress, Nara has called for subsidized access to high-quality animal feed and chromosome-sorted semen to increase productivity, an expansion of veterinary training to address the deficit between the current 68,000 registered veterinarians and the estimated need of 110,000-120,000, and increased capital subsidies for mini-dairies, particularly those run by women entrepreneurs. Climate-resilient infrastructure and stock gaps Vatsyayan stressed the need for future-proof agriculture and highlighted investments in green infrastructure as a budget priority. He noted that micro-irrigation, watershed development, aquifer recharge and renewable energy-based agricultural facilities are critical areas that require scaling. “From a growth perspective, these interventions also act as powerful multipliers – stimulating rural demand, stabilizing farm incomes and strengthening food security,” he said. He also called for closer public-private collaboration in storage, logistics and agricultural research to reduce post-harvest losses, as well as strengthening seed systems to support self-reliance in pulses and other nutrition-sensitive crops. Following the Japanese farmer school model, Vatsyayan proposed adapting cluster-based farmer schools linked to farmer producer organizations and Krishi Vigyan Kendras to accelerate technology adoption. Technology and data as growth levers Digital agriculture emerged as another central topic. MapMyCrop founder and CEO Swapnil Jadhav said scaling precision agriculture depends on strong digital infrastructure and easier access to credit. “Agricultural drones, IoT sensors and AI-driven analytics hold transformative potential to increase yields, optimize water and fertilizer usage and strengthen climate resilience of 140 million farms,” he told PTI. Jadhav called on the government to offer targeted subsidies, expand public-private partnerships and provide tax incentives for research and development to accelerate integration with platforms such as AGMARK-NET and e-NAM to enable a transition to a technology-led agriculture framework. Structural reforms and institutional support Citing long-standing constraints, Soumyak Biswas, partner for agriculture at BDO India, cited fragmented land ownership, underinvestment in related sectors, high post-harvest losses and limited research funding as key challenges. He called for expanding climate-smart agriculture by increasing funding for DARE, strengthening livestock and fisheries, supporting farmers’ organizations with credit guarantees and market-related strategies, and promoting diversification in horticulture, pulses and oilseeds to reduce dependence on water-intensive crops. Vatsyayan said the launch of AGRISTACK could provide the digital foundation for many of these reforms. “By integrating farmer data, land records, credit, insurance, extensions and market platforms, AGRISTACK can enable precise targeting, reduce transaction costs and attract private investment,” he added.
