New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the Budget 2026-27 proposals on Sunday that the government would go in for a big push to high-value crops such as coconut, sandalwood, cocoa, and cashew in the coastal areas to enhance the incomes of farmers.
Agar trees in the North East region and nuts such as almonds, walnuts and pine nuts in the country’s hilly areas will also be supported.
The proposal forms part of the broad roadmap in the Budget for achieving the third Kartavya, which “requires targeted efforts for increasing farmer incomes through productivity enhancement and entrepreneurship”, the Finance Minister said.
“India is the world’s largest producer of coconuts. About 30 million people, including nearly 10 million farmers, depend on coconuts for their livelihood. To further enhance competitiveness in coconut production, I propose a Coconut Promotion Scheme to increase production and enhance productivity through various interventions 16 including replacing old and non-productive trees with new saplings and plant varieties in major coconut-growing states,” she said.
As another step towards the objective of increasing farmers’ income, the Union Budget 2026-27 has also proposed a dedicated programme for Indian cashew and cocoa to make India self-reliant in raw cashew and cocoa production and processing, enhance export competitiveness and transform Indian cashew and Indian cocoa into premium global brands by 2030.
The Union Government will also partner with the state governments to promote focused cultivation and post-harvest processing to restore the glory of the Indian Sandalwood ecosystem.
To rejuvenate old, low-yielding orchards and expand high-density cultivation of walnuts, almonds and pine nuts, the Budget proposes to support a dedicated programme to enhance farmer incomes and in bringing value addition by engaging youth.
The Finance Minister also announced the proposal to launch Bharat-VISTAAR (Virtually Integrated System to Access Agricultural Resources). VISTAAR is envisaged as a multilingual AI tool that shall integrate the AgriStack portals and the ICAR package on agricultural practices with AI systems. This will enhance farm productivity, enable better decisions for farmers and reduce risk by providing customised advisory support.
