With high anticipation among the political observers that the spending on agriculture sector in the 2019 interim budget will be an all-time high, the Modi government today allocated 140763.97 crore for the ailing sector that has been hit by farm distress—a cash in opportunity for the political parties before the Lok Sabha polls.
This year’s allocation is a rise of 157.8 per cent than the spending on agriculture by budget 2018-19.
The agriculture sector sustains the lives of more than 600 million Indians that make up more than half of the total population of the country and its economy makes up about 18 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country.
In last five years, a significant rise in the spending in the agriculture sector was witnessed. In 2018-19, the total spending on agriculture under the Modi government was about Rs 57,600 crore. Comparing it with 2013-2014 budget presented by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government headed by the Congress, a three-fold increase can be witnessed.
The highest jump for spendings in the agriculture sector was noticed in 2016-2017 when the budget allocation for the sector saw an 84 per cent increase.
Further, the Modi government’s allocation for the sector was on an of average 2 per cent of the total Union Budget, compared to the average of 1.3 per cent during the second term of the UPA.
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