Centre spending Rs 6.5 lakh crore annually on agriculture, farmers' welfare, says PM Modi

The Central government is spending Rs 6.5 lakh crore annually for the agriculture sector and farmers’ welfare, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said on Saturday while speaking at an event on the occasion of International Day of Cooperatives.

PM Modi called upon cooperatives to help in making the country self-reliant in cooking oils.

He also highlighted the work done by his government, like PM Kisan scheme, MSP operations, and fertilizer subsidy since coming to power in 2014.

In the last 9 years, the PM said more than Rs 15 lakh crore have been given to farmers by procuring their produce on the MSP. The government, he said spent Rs 10 lakh crore towards fertilizer subsidy last year.

#WATCH | Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 17th Indian Cooperative Congress, says “Today over 25,000 cooperative sectors are working in the fisheries sector. This is improving the lives of our fishermen and improving their earning capacity. Inland fisheries have also seen a… pic.twitter.com/YoKGnbRuVc

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In other words, the government is spending around Rs 6.5 lakh crore per year on agriculture and farmers, the prime minister said. “This means that every year the government is providing an average of Rs 50,000 to every farmer in some form or the other.

“That is, in the BJP government, farmers are guaranteed to get Rs 50,000 every year in different ways. This is Modi’s guarantee,” he said, and added that he was only stating what his government has done and not just talking about “promises”.

In the last 4 years, the prime minister said Rs 2.5 lakh crore have been sent directly to bank accounts of farmers under PM KISAN scheme.

“You can guess how big this amount is from the fact that the total agricultural budget for the five years before 2014 was less than Rs 90,000 crore,” Modi said.He was speaking at the 17th Indian Cooperative Congress.

During the two-day event, the stakeholders will discuss various trends in cooperative movement, showcase best practices being adopted, deliberate challenges being faced and chalk out future policy action for growth of India’s cooperative movement.

Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Mansukh Mandaviya in May this year said “A bag of urea costs a farmer Rs 276, but it costs Rs 791 in Pakistan, Rs 593 in Indonesia, Rs 2,100 in China, Rs 719 in Bangladesh, and Rs 3,060 in the US,” the minister said.

He added that a bag of DAP costs a farmer Rs 1,350 in India, but costs Rs 4,177 in Pakistan, Rs 9,700 in Indonesia, Rs 2,400 in China, Rs 719 in Bangladesh, Rs 3,633 in the US, and Rs 4,180 in Brazil.

With inputs from PTI

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