Expenses, income gap huge in farm sector: All India Kisan Sabha

Comparing the actual expenses incurred in farming and the minimum support price (MSP) announced by the Union Government on 20 major crops, the Left-leaning farmers’ organisation All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) said on Thursday (October 9, 2025) that farmers suffered a loss of ₹3 lakh crore in 2024-25 and an estimated ₹24 lakh crore between 2016 and 2025 due to the gap in income and expenses. The Union Agriculture Ministry, however, refuted this charge and said MSP is finalised after discussions with farmers’ organisations.

Countering the Union government’s argument that farmers who cultivated crops such as paddy, cotton, soybean, maize, groundnut, wheat, gram, arhur (tur), rapeseed, jower, urad, moong, bajra, lentil, ragi, sesamum, barley, sunflower, safflower and nigerseed were getting 50% more than the cost incurred (C2+50%) as per the M.S. Swaminathan commission formula, AIKS leaders Vijoo Krishnan and P. Krishna Prasad told reporters at a press conference on Thursday.

“Considering the crops including milk, entire commercial crops, vegetables, fruits, meat, egg, fish etc. out of the current MSP system and procurement, the losses Indian peasantry suffers is manifold higher, leading to indebtedness, suicides daily on an average of 31 farmers; all this is to ensure corporate profit under the corporate-communal BJP-led NDA regime,” the leaders said.

When asked about this stand taken by the AIKS, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the MSP is decided by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) after consultations with farmers’ organisations. “The Cabinet approved the CACP’s recommendations,” he said.

The AIKS said in the past nine years (2016–2025), farmers growing the 20 major crops have collectively lost an estimated ₹24 lakh crore in income solely because the C2+50% formula was not implemented. “A significant number of farmers sell their produce below MSP, particularly in regions without an effective procurement system, meaning that the actual scale of farmers’ losses is far greater than what the figures suggest. Among the 20 crops, paddy, being the most widely cultivated crop, accounts for the largest losses — approximately ₹97,000 crore in 2024–25 alone, and over ₹7 lakh crore cumulatively during the last nine years,” they added.

In Bihar, they said, paddy, wheat, and maize farmers together have lost around ₹10,000 crore in 2024–25 due to the non-implementation of the C2+50% pricing formula. “Over the nine-year period, their cumulative income loss is estimated at ₹71,000 crore. The actual figure is likely to be much higher, given the widespread inefficiencies in procurement and limited MSP coverage as the mandi system had been closed down in 2006 by the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar,” they alleged.