New Delhi: In what can be a major boost for Odisha, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced plans to support farmers involved in the cultivation of coconuts and other high-value crops.
Coconut is grown on nearly 50,000 hectares in Odisha and the annual yield is around 300 million nuts. The state wants to increase productivity and the budget proposals will prove handy.
Sitharaman laid down a broad roadmap for achieving the third Kartavya, saying: “This requires targeted efforts for a) Increasing farmer incomes through productivity enhancement and entrepreneurship, with special access attention to small and marginal farmers; b) Empowering Divyangjan through to livelihood opportunities, training and high-quality assistive devices; c) Empowering the vulnerable to access mental health and trauma care; d) Focus on the Purvodaya States and the North-East Region to accelerate development and employment opportunities.“
The Budget includes provisions for integrated development of 500 reservoirs and Amrit Sarovars, strengthening the fisheries value chain in coastal areas and enabling market linkages involving start-ups and women-led groups together with Fish Farmers Producer Organisations.
Sitharaman also laid stress on supporting high value crops such as coconut, sandalwood, cocoa and cashew in the coastal areas. Agar trees in North East and nuts such as, almonds, walnuts and pine nuts in our hilly regions will also be supported.
“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/plants/varieties in major coconut growing States.”
Odisha is also the third largest cashew nut producing state in the country with production approaching 100,000 tonnes annually.
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.
This will come as a shot in the arm for Odisha and its cashew nut producers.
Union Government will also partner with State Governments to promote focused cultivation and post-harvest processing to restore the glory of the Indian Sandalwood ecosystem.
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 customized advisory support. nearly 10 million farmers who 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/plants/varieties in major coconut growing States,” Sitharaman said.
