Budget 2019 for farmers: Modi govt comes with minimum income support

New Delhi : Its interim budget 2019 and there is much more to talk about. The government today has announced offering to flatter farmers. Finance Minister Piyush Goyal announced that the Modi government will provide assured income support for small and marginal farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme.

According to the provision, Rs 6,000 per year will be given to farmers in three instalments. This benefit will be transferred directly to farmers' bank accounts. The scheme applies to farmers with less than 2 hectares of landholding.

Piyesh Goyel in his budget speech said, " This initiative will benefit 12 crore small and marginal farmers, at an estimated cost of Rs 75,000 crore. It will enable farmers to earn a respectable living."

It is known to all that farmers are the main focus of the Modi government in Interim Budget 2019. At the time of filing this report, the word farmer’ had been used 25 times. The agrarian distress in India has overwhelmed Modinomics, with the opposition repeatedly attacking the government for failing to improve the situation of farmers who are doubling burdened by debt as well as low prices for their produce.

The main aim of interim budget is to help the BJP government rebuild the political ground it lost in the recently held assembly elections where farmer distress was the key voting issue. The Congress's promise of farm loan waivers won them Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

Meanwhile, the assured income support seems to be an attempt to assuage the farming community's discontent ahead of the general elections. Recently, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh had indicated that the government would announce an agriculture package before the 2019-20 budget.