As the Union Budget 2018-19 saw greater allocation towards agriculture and rural sector upliftment, citizens lauded the government for their initiatives to strengthen the backbone of the Indian economy by making agriculture and rural sector top priority in the budget, as per a survey conducted by LocalCircles.
38 percent citizens had earlier said they wanted agriculture to get top priority in the Budget 2018.
Among various announcements, the Minimum Selling Price (MSP) of all crops has been increased to 1.5 times of the production cost. A corpus of Rs. 2000 crores has been created for the development of Agricultural markets and Rs. 500 crores have been allocated for better connecting farmers and consumers.
In November 2017, in a poll participated by 7,279 citizens, 78 percent had demanded that the government subsidize seeding equipment in budget 2018. Accepting the demand, the government accepted subsidy of seeding equipment for farmers to help them in the farming process, as well as reduce pollution which happens due to burning of the crop stubble.
The government also plans to send a total of 14.4 lakh crores on the rural sector in the next financial year.
Among other initiatives announced for this sector, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the following:
·Institutional credit for agriculture proposed to be raised to Rs. 11 lakh crore for 2018-19
·The government has announced a Rs. 10,000 crore allocation for fisheries, aquaculture and animal husbandry funds
·The government has proposed setting up of an agricultural market fund of Rs. 2,000 crore
·Government proposes to launch Operation Green for which a sum of Rs. 500 crore will be allocated
·Minimum Support Price (MSP) for kharif crops will now be 1.5 times the production cost. If market prices are lower than MSP, it is the government's duty to make sure farmers get their due.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
