New Delhi: Agriculturists and farm experts today (July 8, 2004) welcomed the Union Budget saying the policy directives given in the annual exercise, if translated into action, will help give a major boost to the sector.

However, there were also notes of caution and criticism that pronouncements in the Budget may amount to lip-service. "The Budget has clearly spelt out that Agriculture will be a sustainable and important activity in future. The Finance Minister has given special emphasis to irrigation," NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) Chief Ranjana Kumar said.

After the Budget was tabled in Parliament, she said restoration of old unused water bodies will help in irrigation as a large part of the cultivable land is rain-fed.

Green revolutionist and Chairman, National Commission on Farmers (NCF), M S Swaminathan, said the Budget had provided a new direction to the farm sector with schemes like weather insurance.

Taking care of the water crisis and drinking water situation, the Finance Minister has also put his fingers rightly on rain harvesting in a very organised way. This will do more good than the big dams, he said.

However, former Agriculture Minister and till recently Chairman, NCF, Sompal Shastri, said there was nothing new in the Budget, announcements made were cosmetic in nature and only lip-service was paid to the sector.

He welcomed the excise duty exemption on tractors but said the Finance Minister has not made any projections on investment in Agriculture as percentage of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) which at present stood at a mere 1.3 per cent. Ranjana Kumar welcomed the greater role envisaged for NABARD and fillip given to the self-help groups.