Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime has undergone a sea change and the increase in procurement has resulted in substantial rise in payments to farmers.

This is even as various farmer groups continue to stage protest on the borders of Delhi seeking legal guarantee for MSP and repeal of the farm laws.

“Our government is committed to the welfare of farmers. The MSP regime has undergone a sea change to assure price that is at least 1.5 times the cost of production across all commodities. The procurement has also continued to increase at a steady pace. This has resulted in increase in payment to farmers substantially,” Sitharaman said presenting the Budget.

The public procurement of crops such as paddy, wheat, pulses and cotton has jumped substantially over the past eight years. Since 2013-14, the payments made to paddy and wheat growers has more than doubled, while in case of pulses it has increased by more than 40 times on rise in procurement and MSP.

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Total amount paid to wheat farmers stood at ₹75,000 crore in 2020-21 as compared to ₹33,874 crore in 2013-14. The number of wheat growing farmers who benefited increased to 43.36 lakh in 2020-21 as against 35.57 lakh in 2019-20.

In case of paddy, the amount paid to growers increased to ₹1,41,930 crore in 2019-20 as compared to ₹63,928 crore in 2013-14. “Even better, in 2020-21, this is further estimated to increase to ₹172,752 crore,” she said. The number of paddy farmers benefited increased to 1.54 crore in 2020-21 from 1.2 crore in 2019-20.

Pulses growers received ₹10,530 crore during 2020-21 as against ₹236 crore in 2013-14. Similarly, ₹90 crore was paid in 2013-14 to cotton farmers, while ₹25,974 crore has been paid in 2020-21 as of January 27, Sitharaman said.

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