Budget of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare has gone up more than 6 times in the past 6 years
Union Minister Hardeep Puri has stated that the budget of the Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare has gone up more than six times in the past six years. He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has implemented the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee to increase MSP to 1.5 times the cost of production. He highlighted that the amount spent on procurement at MSP went up by 85 per cent in 2014-19 compared to 2009-14. MSP has risen in the range of 40-70 per cent for all major crops in 2020-21 in comparison to 2013-14.
He informed that over Rs 1, 10,000 crore has been transferred directly to the accounts of farmers through the PM Kisan Yojana and Rs 87,000 crore paid as crop insurance to farmers against a premium of merely Rs 17,450 crore till date.
Union Minister further informed that in 1950, the Indian agriculture sector contributed around 52 per cent to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), while employing nearly 70 per cent of our entire population. He added that as of 2019, the sector still employed nearly 42 per cent of our total population but contributed only 16 per cent to the GDP, while experiencing a year-on-year growth rate of just 2 per cent.
