Farm jam: Budget bets on nuts, cocoa, fisheries to boost agri value

The budget’s thrust on high-value farm produce and allied sectors will help India cut import dependence, raise farm incomes, strengthen exports, and modernise agricultural practices, experts said, pointing to a fresh look at areas that may have been relative stragglers in drawing sufficient funds over the past few years.“The renewed focus on crops such as cocoa, coconut, and cashew will help the government reduce the import bill while enhancing farmers’ incomes and boosting exports,” said Chirag Jain, partner -agri and allied services, Grant Thornton Bharat. The Coconut Promotion Scheme will help increase the production of coconut oil, which has stagnated in the past decade. Coastal states such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu, which are the major producers, have been struggling with low productivity, limited acreage, and high import dependency.

“The production of coconut and coconut oil has been stagnating for the past few years at about 600,000 tonne of coconut and 400,000 tonne of coconut oil. It had further declined to 450,000 tonne of oil last year. The output of the older plantations declines over the years,” said BV Mehta, executive director, Solvent Extractors’ Association.

India’s exports of coconuts rose to 1.88 lakh tonne in FY25 from 1.76 lakh tonne in FY24, a jump of 7%. Exports of cocoa and related products climbed 26%, touching 4.54 lakh tonne in FY25 from 36,186 tonne in FY24. Dedicated schemes for coconut and cocoa are expected to help more than 10 million small and marginal farmers.

Cashew nuts

The budget announced a dedicated programme for cashew production and processing and promote high density cultivation in almonds and walnuts in the Himalayan region to reduce import dependency. This will encourage scientific cultivation in suitable regions, improve yield and quality and gradually reduce long-term import dependence while improving farm-level economics, said Gunjan Jain, president, Nuts and Dry Fruits Council India (NDFC-I). India meets nearly 100% of its almond demand and more than 50% of cashew and walnut demand through imports.

Fisheries & livestockThethree-fold increase in the limit of duty-free import of certain inputs used in processing by the seafood industry is expected to increase the share of value-added products in India’s seafood export basket, bringing down the cost of production at a time when the industry is facing a crisis of high US tariffs, said G Pawan Kumar, president, Seafood Exporters Association of India.

Value added products account for about 11% of India’s total seafood exports of more than $ 7 billion compared with competitors like Vietnam and Thailand, which have more than 30% share of value-added products in their total seafood exports. Animal husbandry and fisheries have been major contributors, accounting for more than 38% of agriculture gross value added (GVA). The potential of these sectors will be further strengthened through new initiatives aimed at modernising and scaling livestock enterprises.

The budget has allocated Rs 1,62,671 crore for the agriculture sector, up 7.12% from the revised estimate of Rs 1,51,853 crore for 2025-26.

Technology

The Bharat-VISTAAR announced in the budget is expected to strengthen the government’s agristack initiative by integrating the current architecture with research, knowledge transfer and digital extension capabilities of ICAR.