New Delhi: The Economic Survey 2025-26, presented in the Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, has highlighted a series of transformative measures that have significantly strengthened India’s agricultural sector.
The survey underscores that improvements in input quality, mechanisation, market support, crop insurance, and credit delivery have led to substantial positive outcomes for farmers across the country.
Income support remains a critical pillar, with the Union government maintaining Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) at 1.5 times the cost of production and increasing MSPs for both Kharif and Rabi crops.
The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme has released more than Rs 4.09 lakh crore to 11 crore farmers in 21 instalments, providing direct income stability.
Credit delivery has surpassed targets, with ground-level disbursement reaching Rs 28.69 lakh crore in FY25.
The Kisan Credit Card scheme, with 7.72 crore operative accounts, has been bolstered by the Modified Interest Subvention Scheme, which has disbursed Rs 1.77 lakh crore in subsidies since FY15, the Survey said.
One of the most notable achievements has been the success of the Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Materials, launched in 2014-15.
This initiative has created 6.85 lakh seed villages and produced 1649.26 lakh quintals of quality seeds, benefiting 2.85 crore farmers.
Building on this, the Union government announced the National Mission on High-Yielding Seeds in the Union Budget 2025-26 to develop climate-resilient varieties and expand commercial availability of more than 100 new seed types.
Irrigation has also seen remarkable progress.
The gross irrigated area as a share of the gross cropped area has risen from 41.7 per cent in 2001-02 to 55.8 per cent in 2022-23, the Survey added.
“This has been supported by the Per Drop More Crop programme, which provides financial assistance for micro-irrigation systems such as drip and sprinklers, ensuring water-use efficiency and resilience against climate variability,” it said.
According to the Economic Survey, soil health management has emerged as another cornerstone of productivity enhancement.
More than 25.55 crore Soil Health Cards have been issued, promoting balanced nutrient management through integrated use of chemical fertilisers, organic manures, and bio-fertilisers.
Reforms such as nutrient-based pricing, neem-coated urea, and Aadhaar-linked point-of-sale verification have improved transparency and fertiliser efficiency.
Mechanisation has expanded rapidly under the Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanisation, with 25,689 custom hiring centres established since 2014-15, including 558 in 2025-26 alone.
These centres provide collective access to modern machinery, reducing costs and improving efficiency for small and marginal farmers.
Marketing infrastructure has been strengthened through schemes like the Agriculture Marketing Infrastructure sub-scheme and the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, which together have financed thousands of storage and marketing projects.
“The National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) platform, launched in 2016, now connects 1.79 crore farmers and 2.72 lakh traders across 1,522 mandis, while the Farmer Producer Organisation scheme has successfully registered 10,000 farmer producer organisations to boost collective bargaining power,” the Survey added.
(IANS)
