The farm economy, on the record

Indian agriculture: the overview

Agriculture and allied activities account for about 18% of India's gross value added (GVA), according to a written Lok Sabha reply given by Bhagirath Choudhary on 10 March 2026. At current prices, the sector's GVA rose from ₹20,93,612 crore in 2014-15 to ₹48,77,867 crore in 2023-24 — a compound annual growth rate of 8.83% — and the Second Advance Estimate for 2025-26 puts it at ₹52,08,800 crore.

The Economic Survey 2025-26 records that the sector grew at an average of about 4.4% a year over the previous five years at constant prices, and that horticulture now contributes about a third of agricultural GVA. The most recent all-India survey of farm households (NSS 77th round, 2018-19) put the average monthly income of an agricultural household at ₹10,218.

Rajasthan: India's largest State, and its mustard bowl

Rajasthan covers 3,42,239 square kilometres, the largest area of any Indian State. In 2022-23 its net sown area was 1,84,22,557 hectares — 53.74% of its reporting area — and 95.00 lakh hectares, or 51.57% of the net sown area, were irrigated, mostly from wells and tube-wells. Irrigation ranges from 98.83% of net sown area in Kota to 19.46% in Barmer. The State Government describes farming here as "essentially rain fed".

The State produced 252.80 lakh tonnes of foodgrains in 2022-23, with wheat (44.78%) and bajra (23.41%) the largest shares. It also grew 16.15 lakh tonnes of guar seed.

Farmer welfare: income support, insurance and credit

PM-KISAN, launched in February 2019, transfers ₹6,000 a year to eligible landholding farmer families in three instalments of ₹2,000. By its 21st instalment more than ₹4.09 lakh crore had been paid, according to Bhagirath Choudhary's written answer of 10 March 2026. The 23rd instalment, released on 20 June 2026, paid ₹18,895.10 crore to 9,44,34,650 beneficiaries; in Rajasthan, 65,99,142 farmers received ₹1,319.84 crore.

The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), in place since 2016-17 and voluntary for States and farmers, paid claims of ₹85,457.35 crore nationally between 2021-22 and 2025-26. Rajasthan accounted for ₹18,189.16 crore of that.

Through the Kisan Credit Card and the Modified Interest Subvention Scheme, short-term crop loans of up to ₹3 lakh carry 7% interest, reduced to an effective 4% for prompt repayment. About 7.81 crore KCC accounts were operative in August 2026, with ₹10.39 lakh crore outstanding.

Crop production: a record estimate

The Ministry's Third Advance Estimates for 2025-26, released on 27 May 2026, put total foodgrain production at a record 376.563 million tonnes, about 18.8 million tonnes (5.3%) above the 357.73 million tonnes finally estimated for 2024-25. Rice, maize, groundnut, rapeseed and mustard, and sugarcane were each estimated at record levels.

• Rice154.02 MT
• Wheat120.66 MT
• Nutri / coarse cereals74.47 MT
• Maize55.09 MT
• Oilseeds43.06 MT
• Pulses27.41 MT
• Shree Anna (millets)17.58 MT

Minimum Support Price and procurement

Minimum Support Prices are announced for 22 mandated crops on the recommendation of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices. Since the Union Budget 2018-19, MSPs have been fixed at no less than one-and-a-half times the all-India weighted average cost of production.

Procurement of wheat and rice is carried out by the Food Corporation of India and State agencies; pulses and oilseeds are bought under the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare's price-support operations. The answer to USQ 3916 records paddy procurement rising from 478.21 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 to a peak of 895.66 lakh tonnes in 2020-21 and 826.27 lakh tonnes in 2024-25. Wheat procurement peaked at 433.44 lakh tonnes in 2021-22 and fell to 187.92 lakh tonnes in 2022-23, before recovering to 266.05 lakh tonnes in 2024-25.

Agricultural markets

The National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) connects regulated wholesale markets on a common electronic trading platform. By 30 June 2026 it linked 1,656 mandis in 23 States and 4 Union Territories, and 247 commodities were tradable on it. Bhagirath Choudhary answered a Lok Sabha question on the e-NAM platform on 17 March 2026.

Under a central scheme begun in 2020-21, 10,000 Farmer Producer Organisations have been formed, with more than 65 lakh shareholder farmers. The Ministry has released ₹827.81 crore as management cost support and ₹631.98 crore as equity grants to them.

Agricultural research, education and extension

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), founded on 16 July 1929, is the apex body of India's National Agricultural Research and Education System. It functions under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) — the department that lists Bhagirath Choudhary as its Minister of State.

Krishi Vigyan Kendras: extension at district level

KVKs are ICAR's district-level farm science centres, following a 1976 recommendation of the National Commission on Agriculture that each district should have one. In a written answer of 4 August 2026, Bhagirath Choudhary told the Lok Sabha that KVKs had conducted 9.67 lakh frontline demonstrations and trained 62.35 lakh farmers over the previous three years, and that a 2025-26 NITI Aayog evaluation found about 91% adoption of the practices they promoted. The same answer disclosed irregularities at five KVKs — Sehore, Vidisha, Auraiya, Guntur and Thanjavur — which were withdrawn from their host organisations.

Varieties, seed and new science

ICAR released 339 crop varieties in 2025-26 and produced 1,09,370.2 quintals of breeder seed in 2024-25. In February 2026, answering USQ 689, Bhagirath Choudhary described two genome-edited rice varieties, DRR Dhan 100 and Pusa DST Rice 1, developed with SDN-1 and SDN-2 genome editing — techniques that a Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change order of 30 March 2022 exempted from the rules for genetically modified organisms.

People

Answering USQ 255 on 21 July 2026, he reported that the Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board had initiated recruitment to 1,674 posts in 2021–2025, of which 1,256 had been filled.

Agricultural technology

The Digital Agriculture Mission, approved on 2 September 2024 with an outlay of ₹2,817 crore (central share ₹1,940 crore), is building digital public infrastructure for farming: a registry of farmers, a digital crop survey and decision-support systems. More than 10.28 crore Farmer IDs had been generated by 30 July 2026, and the rabi 2025-26 digital crop survey covered more than 31.3 crore plots in 648 districts.

The Namo Drone Didi scheme, with an outlay of ₹1,261 crore for 2023-24 to 2025-26, provides women's self-help groups with 80% assistance, up to ₹8 lakh, for agricultural drones; lead fertiliser companies distributed 1,094 drones in 2023-24.

On 16 August 2024 Bhagirath Choudhary launched the Krishi-Decision Support System, a geospatial platform, at a Ministry conference on the use of space technology in agriculture.

Crop diversification: pulses, oilseeds and millets

India imports a large part of its edible oil and some of its pulses, and two missions now target both. The National Mission on Edible Oils – Oilseeds, approved on 3 October 2024 with ₹10,103 crore for 2024-25 to 2030-31, aims to raise oilseed output from 39 million tonnes (2022-23) to 69.7 million tonnes. The Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses, launched in October 2025, carries ₹11,440 crore for 2025-26 to 2030-31. Rajasthan — the country's leading producer of mustard — spent ₹74.90 crore under the oilseeds mission in 2025-26.

Millets, promoted as Shree Anna, are a Rajasthan staple: the State leads the country in nutri- and coarse-cereal production. A Lok Sabha answer by Bhagirath Choudhary on 17 March 2026 (USQ 4139) traced kodo and kutki millet output in Sidhi district, Madhya Pradesh, from 7,739.80 tonnes in 2023-24 to 10,229.76 tonnes in 2025-26.

Irrigation

Irrigation is shared between Ministries. Large and medium projects fall under the Ministry of Jal Shakti; the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare runs the Per Drop More Crop component of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, which subsidises drip and sprinkler systems on farms. Bhagirath Choudhary answered questions on micro irrigation (USQ 2798) and Per Drop More Crop (USQ 3949) in March 2026.

In Rajasthan, only about half of the net sown area is irrigated (51.57% in 2022-23), and dependence on groundwater is heavy. As an MP, Bhagirath Choudhary sat on the Standing Committee on Water Resources from September 2019, and his first question in the Lok Sabha concerned subsidies for solar-powered irrigation.

Water management

Groundwater is the limiting resource in much of central Rajasthan. The Central Ground Water Board's report on Peesangan block of Ajmer district classified seven of the district's nine blocks as over-exploited and two as critical, with extraction in Peesangan at 207.94% of annual recharge — more than twice what is replenished. Rainfall is low and variable: the Board gives a mean annual rainfall of about 453 millimetres for the district.

The State Government's own statistics show how much the monsoon matters: in 2022-23 Rajasthan received 715.1 millimetres of rain against a normal of 575.1 millimetres.

Soil health

Since 2014-15 the Soil Health Card scheme has issued 26.26 crore cards telling farmers the nutrient status of their fields, backed by a network of 8,313 soil testing laboratories. At the National Agri Input Conclave on 25 March 2025, the PHD Chamber of Commerce reported Bhagirath Choudhary urging farmers to have their soil tested and to use the help available from research centres and FPOs.

Climate resilience and natural farming

The National Mission on Natural Farming, approved by the Cabinet on 25 November 2024, promotes chemical-free cultivation through farmer clusters. By 30 July 2026 it had formed 24,031 clusters and enrolled 24,69,277 farmers on 11,81,425.73 hectares; Rajasthan accounted for 2,814 clusters and 2,66,596 farmers. The older Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana supports organic farming with ₹31,500 per hectare over three years.

ICAR's National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) programme develops and tests climate-resilient practices and varieties. Between July 2024 and March 2026, Bhagirath Choudhary answered more than fifteen Lok Sabha questions on climate change and climate-resilient crops.

Post-harvest systems

Losses after harvest are addressed mainly through credit for storage and processing. The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, a ₹1 lakh crore financing facility launched on 9 August 2020, offers 3% interest subvention and credit guarantees on loans of up to ₹2 crore for warehouses, cold storage, primary processing and similar assets. In Rajasthan, ₹4,895.13 crore had been lent for 6,544 projects by July 2026. The National Horticulture Board separately gives credit-linked, back-ended capital subsidy for post-harvest management and cold-chain infrastructure.

Food security

Record production and large public procurement underpin India's food-security system. Grain procured at MSP stocks the public distribution system under the National Food Security Act. Between 2014 and June 2026, total procurement came to 12,819 lakh metric tonnes, with an MSP value of ₹27.80 lakh crore; in Rabi Marketing Season 2026-27 alone, 357.57 lakh tonnes of wheat were procured from 34,82,564 farmers.

Agricultural exports

India's agricultural exports reached US$ 52.55 billion in 2025-26, up 2.8% from US$ 51.12 billion in 2024-25, and up from US$ 32.08 billion in 2014-15, according to Government data released through the Press Information Bureau. Export promotion is led by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry through APEDA, not the Ministry of Agriculture.