Jaitley: Govt to spend Rs 14.34 lakh crore for Rural India in FY19

"Our emphasis is on generating higher income for farmers, They are also focusing on generating productive employment on farms and non-farm workers," said Jaitley.

Farmers working in a field. Photo: PTI

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during his budget speech stated that the government focuses on strengthening agriculture and rural economy.

Jaitley said, "Our emphasis is on generating higher income for farmers, They are also focusing on generating productive employment on farms and non-farm workers. We want to help the farmers produce more from the same land, at a lesser cost, and get a better price."

According to Jaitley, government is focusing on ease of living of the poor. And to strengthen this region, Jaitley announced to raise minimum support price (MSP) for all crops. MSP will be set at 1.5 times of agriculture production cost, and for this Jaitley proposes to ensure cost plus 50% for all monsoon crops.

Jaitley said that operation green will be launched for this sector, and the government will allocate Rs 500 crore in this matter.

The government plans to set up 22,000 Gramin agricultural markets. While agricultural produce market committee (AMPC) to be linked with ENAM, as per Jaitley.

Jaitley proposes to liberalize export of farm commodities. He believes that, agriculture export has potential of $100 billion as against current $30 billion.

Taking on ease of living, Jaitley says, "The government has decided to raise spending on housing for poor. They aim to provide houses to every poor by 2022. The government will establish a dedicated affordable housing fund."

The ministry has expaned the Ujjwala Yojana - free LPG connection scheme to eight crore households. Also Jaitley says, "The government aims to provide free cooking gas to 8 crore households."

The ministry has also increases the spending on rural sanitation. Also, next fiscal, the ministry plans to enhances the Saubhagya Yojana by constructing two crore additional toilets next year. Six crore toilets have been built already.

Futhermore, He said the ministry plans to extend Kisan Credit Card to animal husbandary, adding that the government has also decided to spend Rs 10,000 crore on aqua, animal husbandary infra.

He announced to allocate Rs 1,290 crore for development of the bamboo production sector.

On food processing, the government plans to allocate Rs 1,400 crore in next year.

Jaitley has also increased loans to self-help groups to Rs 75,000 crore. The ministry allocates Rs 5,750 crore to National Livelihood Mission and Rs 2,600 crore to the groundwater irrigation scheme.

Moreover, Jaitley has decided to increase agriculture credit from Rs 10 lakh crore. He says, the government will spend Rs 14.34 lakh crore for rural India for FY19.

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