Arun Jaitley begins Budget 2018 speech with big focus on farmers, rural economy

Arun Jaitley today announced in his Budget 2018 speech that Minimum Support Price (MSP), had been set at 1.5 times the production cost for kharif crops. He said an Agri-Market Development Fund with a corpus of Rs 2,000 crore would be created.

The finance minister proposed the launch of a restructured national bamboo mission with Rs 1,200 crore, and of an 'Operation Green' on the lines of 'Operation Flood.' He also proposed an increase in institutional credit for agriculture - to Rs 11 lakh crore.

The air pollution in Delhi and the NCR was a cause for concern, Jaitley said. He annouced a special scheme to help the governments of Haryana, Punjab and Delhi tackle this problem, and subsidise machinery for crop residue management.