Budget 2018: What Jaitley announced for farmers, agricultural sector

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said that the government has decided to increase the minimum support price (MSP) by 1.5 times the production cost for kharif crops.

"This is an important step towards doubling the farmers' income by 2022 - a key resolve of our government. As we have pointed out, increasing production is fine. The problem is getting farmers 50% profit margin on top of production costs," Jaitley said while presenting the Union Budget in Lok Sabha.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave clarion call to double farmers' income by 2022 and we are committed to achieve that. Our emphasis is on generating higher income for farmers, he added.

"An agri-market development fund will also be set up with a corpus of Rs 2000 crore for developing agricultural markets," the Finance Minister said.

Government proposes to launch 'Operation Greens' on the lines of 'Operation Flood', he said adding that the farm production is at record high.

President Ram Nath Kovind, while addressing both houses of the Parliament on first day of the Budget session on Monday, had said that resolving farmers' problems and raising their standard of living remains government's top priority.

Farm incomes have fallen because of the rising cost of production while crop prices have not risen, presenting a potential risk to BJP in the upcoming elections after it barely won re-election in his home state of Gujarat last month.

Also read: Budget 2018: Free LPG connection scheme to cover 8 crore poor women, says Jaitley