Union Budget 2026 allocates ₹1.63 lakh crore for high-value agriculture and allied sectors

Key facts

• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated ₹1,62,671 crore to the agriculture sector in Union Budget 2026-27, a 7% rise from 2025-26’s revised estimate of ₹1,51,853 crore.
• The government will support high-value crops such as coconut, sandalwood, cocoa, cashew, agarwood, walnut, almond and pine nut under dedicated programmes for rejuvenating old orchards and expanding high-density cultivation.
• A new coconut promotion scheme targets replacing non-productive trees with improved varieties in major coconut-growing states, benefiting around 30 million people including nearly 10 million farmers.
• A dedicated programme for Indian cashew and cocoa aims to make India self-reliant in raw material production and processing and to establish these products as premium global brands by 2030.
• Sandalwood cultivation will receive focused support through partnerships with state governments to promote scientific farming and post-harvest processing.
• The Budget proposes integrated development of 500 reservoirs and water bodies to strengthen the fisheries value chain, with emphasis on market linkages and support to startups, women-led groups and fish farmer producer organisations.
• A credit-linked subsidy programme will be introduced for animal husbandry to promote entrepreneurship, modernise livestock enterprises and scale up integrated value chains across dairy, poultry and livestock sectors.
• The government announced the launch of Bharat Vistar, a multilingual AI tool integrating AgriStack portals and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) practices to deliver customised advisory support and boost farm productivity.