The Lok Sabha today gave its nod for the demands for grants under the control of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare for 2026-27. Replying to a discussion, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that the government is moving forward with the objectives of ensuring food security, increasing farmers’ income, and providing nutritious food to the people. He said, the budget allocation for agriculture was only 21 thousand 933 crore rupees in 2013-14, which has now increased to more than one lakh 30 thousand crore rupees. Mr Chouhan said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government has been continuously working to increase agricultural production. He said, record production of food grains and horticulture has been recorded. He said, as compared to 265 million tonnes of foodgrains production in 2014-15, the production has risen to 357 million tonnes. Similarly, in the horticulture sector, production has increased from 277 million tonnes to 370 million tonnes. Besides, record production was also witnessed in the production of paddy, wheat, maize, groundnut, and soybean.
Mr. Chouhan said that India has surpassed China in rice production and become the number one rice producer. He said, efforts have been made to reduce production costs to ensure farmers get the remunerative price for their produce. Talking about PM-Kisan, the Minister said that under the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme, four lakh 27 thousand crore rupees have been transferred directly into farmers’ accounts in 22 instalments. On the availability of fertilisers, the Agriculture Minister said, the government has continuously increased fertilizer subsidies. He said, the prices of Urea and DAP have been kept stable and a bag of urea is available at 266 rupees. He said, the fertilizer subsidy, which was only 18 thousand 460 crore rupees during 2005-06, has now increased to more than one lakh 77 thousand crore rupees. He said that the agricultural credit was seven lakh 30 thousand crore rupees in 2014, which has now increased to 28 lakh crore through institutional loans. He said, the government has made several important reforms in the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme, extending its benefits to the animal husbandry, dairy, and fisheries sectors also. On Minimum Support Price, Mr Chouhan said that the UPA government had not provided a Minimum Support Price (MSP) at 50 per cent above the cost of production to farmers. He said, in 2019, it was the Narendra Modi government that decided that MSP would be decided by adding a 50 per cent profit margin over the cost.
On the procurement of food grains, Mr Chouhan said, during the UPA regime, only 45 crore metric tonnes of paddy were procured, while the NDA government procured more than 84 crore metric tonnes. He said that during the UPA period, the procurement of pulses was only 6 lakh metric tonnes, which reached around two crore metric tonnes during the NDA period. The Minister said, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed new seed varieties to boost production, and it has developed around 3 thousand 356 new varieties of seeds.
Earlier, initiating the discussion, Amrinder Singh Raja Warring of Congress said, the farmers of the country are not just foodgrain producers but are also the strongest base of the country’s economy and food security. He said that farmers are demanding a legal guarantee for the price of their produce and urged the government to ensure a guaranteed Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farmers.
Konda Vishweshwar Reddy of BJP said that agriculture is the country’s cultural identity and stability. He said, since 2014, the agricultural growth in India has been phenomenal compared to other sectors. Mr Reddy said, the Rice production has increased 40 per cent in the country. He also highlighted that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several measures have been taken to support the farmer, promoting organic farming and increasing agricultural exports. He said, budgetary allocation has been increased during the NDA government. Mr Reddy said that the MSPs of various crop has also increased during the NDA rule.
Pratima Mondal of TMC, Murasoli S of DMK, Naresh Chandra Uttam Patel of Samajwadi Party, Mohile Patil Dhairyasheel Rajsinh of NCP (SP) and Sanjay Uttamrao Deshmukh of Shiv Sena (UTB) among others also participated in the debate.
