Agritech Related Expectations from Budget 2023-24

While in our bid to understand the top expectations from the upcoming Union Budget 202324, SMEStreet got budget expectations quotes from Mr. Debarshi Dutta of Ayekart - An Integrated Supply Chain platform for empowering Traditional Businesses with Technology, Services and Finance, IN his quotes, he highlighted AgriTech related perspective by saying, "The government has been focusing on doubling farmers income and aims to set up 10,000 FPOs to facilitate and accelerate this initiative. While financial support will help, skilling and managing these FPOs professionally and supporting initiatives to digitise farm-level data and market linkages will help exponentially grow the impact of these FPOs."

At the same time, Agro-based MSMEs working in this space are under pressure due to increased cost of funds, risk of disintermediation by fintech / large corporates, and generally adverse market conditions, he also added, "An extension of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) will help sustainability in the short term. The government should also simplify data sharing mechanisms for MSMEs w.r.t. licenses, financials, bank statements, tax returns, GSTIN etc., to enable alternate credit rating and lending."