: Sunday, February 01, 2026 1:42 PM
New Delhi, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the budget for 2026-27 in Parliament on Sunday. In this budget, the government has given big relief to the farmers cultivating coconut, cashew and cocoa. New plans have been announced to increase production, achieve self-reliance and make these crops premium brands globally. The Union Finance Minister stressed on high-value agriculture by supporting high-value crops like coconut, sandalwood, cocoa and cashew in coastal areas. Agar trees in the North-East and fruits like almonds, walnuts and pine nuts in the hilly areas will also be supported. Nirmala Sitharaman said, “India is the largest producer of coconut in the world. About 3 crore people, including about 1 crore farmers, depend on coconut for their livelihood. To further enhance competitiveness in coconut production, I propose the Coconut Incentive Scheme, which aims to increase production and productivity by replacing old and unproductive trees with new varieties in major coconut producing states.”
As a further step towards the objective of enhancing farmers’ income, a dedicated program for Indian cashew and cocoa has also been proposed in the Union Budget 2026-27 to enable India to become self-reliant in the production of raw cashew and cocoa, enhance export competitiveness and transform Indian cashew and Indian cocoa into premium global brands by 2030.
The Central Government will partner with State Governments to promote targeted cultivation and post-harvest processing to restore the integrity of the Indian sandalwood ecosystem.
To revive old, low-yielding orchards and expand high-density cultivation of walnuts, almonds and pine fruits, the Budget proposes to support a dedicated program to increase farmers’ income and bring value addition by involving youth.
Under the broader objective of enhancing farmers’ income, the budget includes provisions for integrated development of 500 reservoirs and amrit sarovars, strengthening fisheries value chains in coastal areas and enabling market linkages involving start-ups and women-led groups as well as fish farmer producer organisations.
Nirmala Sitharaman said that animal husbandry will be one of the major areas to increase the income of farmers. To provide quality employment opportunities in rural and semi-urban areas, the Government will support the animal husbandry sector in entrepreneurship development through: (a) credit-based subsidy programmes, (b) expansion and modernization of livestock enterprises, (c) enhancing the creation of integrated value chains focused on livestock, milk production and poultry and (d) encouraging the formation of livestock farmer producer organizations.
He announced the proposal to launch ‘Bharat-Vistaar’. It will be a virtual and integrated system facilitating farmers’ access to agricultural resources. Bharat-Vistaar will be developed as a multilingual AI based tool, which will connect the AgriStack portal and ICAR packages based on agricultural practices with modern AI systems. This will increase agricultural productivity, help farmers take better decisions and reduce risks by providing customized advisory support.
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Web Title-Coconut, Cashew, and Cocoa Farmers Get Major Relief: Government New Plan in Budget
