Kisan jam: BJP's Gujarat scare echoes in Jaitley's Budget

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has offered minimum support price (MSP) for kharif crops at one and a half time of the production cost. After the Bhavantar scheme launched in Madhya Pradesh, Jaitley announced Niti Ayog would prepare a plan to help farmers get adequate prices of crops if the prices are less than MSP. Bhavantar scheme entails paying farmers the difference between the Minimum Support Price and the 'model rate' of a crop (calculated from prices data from the Centre and local markets) if the model rate is lower.

With the raise in MSP, Jaitley has cleared tried to please Indian farmers who have been facing difficulties for a long time.

The erosion of the BJP's rural base in the Gujarat elections and the upcoming elections in a few predominantly agricultural states make rural sector the strongest candidate for a Budget largess. Nearly 70 per cent of India's 1.3 billion population is rural, and the government cannot ignore it.


Modi could not afford to ignore rural voters who are already showing signs of alienation from his party. Also, Modi had promised to double farmers' income by 2022. Opposition parties may not be able to wean away Modi's middle-class voter but rural voters can easily shift to them given the increasing farm distress and poor agricultural growth.

India's agriculture sector is likely to grow at 2.1 per cent in 2017-18, down from 4.9% in 2016-17, according to the Economic Survey 2017-18.