The Union government has decided increase the minimum support price for crops this rabi season to 1.5 times of production costs, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday while preesenting the Union Budget for 2018-19
The minister also said the MSP will cover all crops.
Declaring that the focus is on strengthening agriculture and rural economy, Mr. Jaitley said the government wanted to help the farmers produce more from the same land at a lesser cost, and get a better price.
Mr. Jaitley announced a Rs. 2,000-crore fund for development of agri-markets. He doubled the allocation for Agriculture Ministry to Rs 1,400 crore in FY2018-19.
Mr. Jaitley also said an 'Operation Green' will be launched for agriculture and allocated Rs. 500 crore for it.
Agriculture stocks gained ground after the finance minister proposed to raise institutional credit for agriculture to Rs.11 lakh crore for 2018-19.
