Union Budget 2026–27 Pre-Budget Cheers in Markets, Pre-Budget Tears in Fields

Where Are Farmers in the Budget Ledger?
The Cry from the Fields and the Silence of Power in Delhi.

“If agriculture collapses, the economy cannot survive.”

• Five Core Expectations of Indian Farmers from Budget 2026–27
• Legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price to pull farming out of perpetual losses.
• Direct relief on fertilizers, seeds and diesel to control rising input costs.
• Creation of a National Farmer Climate Security Mission to combat climate shocks.
• Priority to domestic production and self-reliant agriculture instead of import-driven policies.
• Comprehensive debt relief and a sustainable income model to prevent farmer suicides.

“Thousands of desires, each one strong enough to drain a life.”

Mirza Ghalib’s immortal couplet has today become the most accurate expression of Indian farmers’ expectations and anxieties from the forthcoming Union Budget.
As the Budget for the financial year 2026–27 approaches, the farmer is not waiting for miracles. He only wants to know whether, this time, his labour, his rising costs and his collapsing livelihood will find any real place in the nation’s list of priorities.

Crushed between escalating input prices, falling crop rates, mounting debt, fake fertilizers and pesticides, and the growing fury of climate disasters, India’s farmer looks towards the Budget with helpless hope. The desires are many, but every desire carries the fear of disappointment.

India’s Union Budget is not merely a statement of income and expenditure. It is the moral mirror of national priorities. Unfortunately, year after year, that mirror shows farmers only a blurred reflection. They dominate political speeches, yet disappear between budget lines.

As Budget 2026–27 knocks on the door, the same question haunts rural India once again. Will agriculture remain a decorative statistic, or will it finally become the centre of national economic policy?

The irony is stark. Agriculture supports nearly 46 percent of India’s population, yet contributes barely around 16 percent to GDP. This decline is not merely economic. It is the loudest indicator of sustained policy failure. Farming today is no longer a business of production. It has become a struggle for survival.

The greatest tragedy lies in rising costs and stagnant prices. Seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, diesel, electricity, labour and machinery have all become expensive.

Compared to 2010, the cost of cultivation has nearly tripled, while crop prices have not even doubled. As a result, farm income does not grow. Losses deepen.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, more than 250,000 farmers died by suicide between 2015 and 2023. On average, nearly 30 farmers lost their lives every single day. These are not numbers caused by drought or flood alone. They are casualties of policy apathy.

Farmer suicides are not emotional acts. They are economic executions.

At the heart of this crisis lies the incomplete Minimum Support Price system. Even today, only 6 to 8 percent of farmers actually benefit from MSP procurement. The rest are forced to sell below cost in open markets. The Swaminathan Commission’s recommendation of cost plus 50 percent remains buried in government files. Without a legal MSP guarantee, farmers remain at the mercy of volatile markets.

Import-driven policies have further crippled agriculture. Nearly 60 percent of India’s edible oil requirement is imported, draining over 20 billion dollars annually in foreign exchange. Pulses imports of 2 to 3 million tonnes directly destroy domestic prices. Whenever Indian farmers achieve better production, imports are opened and prices collapse. Hard work gets punished.

Chemical-intensive farming has created another silent emergency. Due to imbalanced fertilizer use, nearly 30 percent of India’s agricultural soil has lost biological productivity. In Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, soil carbon levels have fallen to alarming lows. Farmers now apply more fertilizer just to maintain the same yield, pushing costs even higher and trapping agriculture in a vicious cycle of ecological and economic decline.

Climate change has emerged as the most dangerous invisible enemy. Nearly 60 percent of India’s farmland now lies under extreme weather risk. Untimely rainfall, droughts, hailstorms and heat waves wipe out entire crops within days. In 2023 and 2024 alone, climate disasters caused losses worth several lakh crore rupees. Compensation, however, remained painfully inadequate.

Farming has become a high-risk enterprise, while farmers have lost the capacity to absorb risk.

Even the flagship crop insurance scheme covers only 30 to 35 percent of cultivated area. Claim settlements take years. Insurance companies remain profitable. Farmers remain trapped in paperwork and loss.

Agricultural credit tells an equally disturbing story. Nearly 85 percent of small farmers still depend on moneylenders charging interest between 24 and 60 percent annually. Tenant farmers and livestock rearers continue to remain outside formal credit systems. Debt is no longer a choice. It is a compulsion.

Public investment paints a grim picture. India spends barely 0.4 percent of agricultural GDP on research, while the global average stands at 1 percent. Countries like China and Brazil invest far more. Without doubling research expenditure, India cannot fight climate stress, soil degradation and declining productivity.

Livestock, fisheries and horticulture have emerged as rays of hope. Livestock contributes nearly 28 percent of agricultural gross value added and supports over 70 million livelihoods, yet suffers from a shortage of fodder, veterinary services and processing infrastructure. Fisheries still lose 20 to 25 percent produce post-harvest. Despite contributing one-third of agricultural output, horticulture has cold storage coverage of less than 10 percent.

Budget 2026–27 presents the government with a historic opportunity to move from relief-based farming to dignity-based farming. Farmers must not merely be beneficiaries. They must be partners in policy design and implementation.

Legal MSP, farmer-centric import policies, climate-resilient agriculture, dedicated support for natural and organic farming, and a direct income security framework are no longer optional. They are urgent necessities.

Adam Smith once observed that no nation can be prosperous if its farmers are poor. Mahatma Gandhi warned that India lives in its villages, and if villages weaken, the nation’s soul weakens with them.

The time has come for budgets to grant farmers rights, not charity. Stability, not temporary relief. Trust, not token announcements.

If once again farmers remain confined to speeches alone, this will not merely be an agricultural crisis. It will become a national crisis.

Only when agriculture is treated not as a burden but as the foundation of India’s future can we truly claim that development in this country is rooted in the soil, not just written in files.

Author: Dr. Rajaram Tripathi
Agricultural and Rural Economist &
National Convenor, All India Farmers Alliance (AIFA)