Budget 2026: Agri sector lays out its pitch — expect tech push, climate-smart infrastructure & more

Industry leaders argue that the 2026-27 Budget is a pivotal moment to move agriculture beyond a welfare-driven approach and position it as a sustained contributor to economic expansion. “Agriculture is increasingly being recognised not merely as a welfare sector, but as a credible engine of economic growth — one that can drive productivity, employment, rural demand and resilience,” Amit Vatsyayan, Leader, GPS-Agriculture, Livelihood, Social and Skills at EY India told PTI. Dairy industry flags targeted interventions Within agriculture, the organised dairy segment is seeking focused policy support.

Heritage Foods Ltd Executive Director Brahmani Nara said that consumer demand has shifted in favour of high-protein and health-oriented products such as paneer, cheese, ghee and butter following the GST rationalisation implemented in September 2025. She noted that schemes including the Rashtriya Gokul Mission and the National Digital Livestock Mission have already brought more than 3,00,000 farmers into the formal system.

To build on this progress, Nara has called for subsidised access to quality animal feed and chromosome-sorted semen to improve productivity, expansion of veterinary education to address the shortfall between the existing 68,000 registered veterinarians and the estimated need of 110,000–120,000, and higher capital subsidies for mini-dairy units, especially those run by women entrepreneurs. Climate-resilient infrastructure and storage gaps Stressing the need to future-proof farming, Vatsyayan highlighted investments in green infrastructure as a Budget priority.

He pointed to micro-irrigation, watershed development, aquifer recharge and renewable energy-based agricultural assets as critical areas requiring scale. “From a growth lens, these interventions also act as strong multipliers – stimulating rural demand, stabilising farm incomes and strengthening food security,” he said. He also called for deeper public-private collaboration in storage, logistics and agricultural research to cut post-harvest losses, along with strengthened seed systems to support self-reliance in pulses and other nutrition-sensitive crops.

Drawing from Japan’s farmer school model, Vatsyayan suggested adapting cluster-based farmer schools linked to farmer producer organisations and Krishi Vigyan Kendras to speed up technology adoption. Technology and data as growth levers Digital agriculture emerged as another key theme.

MapMyCrop Founder and CEO Swapnil Jadhav said scaling precision farming would depend on strong digital infrastructure and easier access to credit. “Agri-drones, IoT sensors, and AI-driven analytics hold transformative potential to elevate yields, optimise water and fertilizer use, and fortify climate resilience for 140 million farm holdings,” he told PTI. Jadhav urged the government to offer targeted subsidies, expand public-private partnerships and provide R&D tax incentives to accelerate integration with platforms such as AGMARK-NET and e-NAM, enabling a shift towards a technology-led agricultural framework. Structural reforms and institutional support Pointing to long-standing constraints, BDO India Partner for Agriculture Soumyak Biswas highlighted fragmented landholdings, underinvestment in allied sectors, high post-harvest losses and limited research funding as key challenges. He called for scaling up climate-smart agriculture through increased funding for DARE, strengthening livestock and fisheries, supporting farmer producer organisations with credit guarantees and market-linked strategies, and encouraging diversification into horticulture, pulses and oilseeds to reduce reliance on water-intensive crops. Vatsyayan said that the rollout of AGRISTACK could provide the digital foundation for many of these reforms.

“By integrating farmer data, land records, credit, insurance, extension and market platforms, AGRISTACK can enable precision targeting, reduce transaction costs and crowd in private investment,” he added.