AIKS strongly condemned the Narendra Modi-led BJP Government’s duplicity in declaring MSP@ A₂+FL formula instead of C₂+50% as promised in the BJP Manifesto of 2014 Lok Sabha election. The Government trumpeting the highest increase announced for safflower and lentil (masur) was hollow since the increased cost of production was not taken into account. In all the crops, the declared MSP was below the rate of the C₂+50% formula recommended by the MS Swaminathan Commission.

According to the Second Advance Estimates of Production for 2024–25, farmers cultivating the 20 major Kharif and Rabi crops could have earned nearly ₹3 lakh Crore Rupees more if their produce had been procured at prices determined by the Swaminathan Commission’s recommended formula of C₂+50%.

Twenty crops include paddy, cotton, soybean, maize, groundnut, wheat, gram, arhur (tur), rapeseed, jower, urad, moong, bajra, lentil, ragi, sesamum, barley, sunflower, safflower, nigerseed.

Considering other produce 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 profits under the corporate-communal BJP led NDA regime.

Over the last nine years (2016–2025), farmers growing these 20 crops have collectively lost an estimated ₹24 lakh crore in income solely because the C₂+50% formula was not implemented, even under the assumption that the entire production was procured at the official Minimum Support Prices (MSP) which is unreal.

A significant number of farmers sell their produce well below MSP, particularly in regions without an effective mandi (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.

In Bihar, where elections have just concluded, 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.

PM-Kisan Scheme: Another betrayal of farmers

As of early August 2025, over ₹3.90 lakh crore has been disbursed to farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme. This total includes the released 20th instalment (August 2, 2025) of ₹20,500 crore to over 9.7 crore farmers, 19th instalment (February 24, 2025) of ₹22,000 crore to more than 9.8 crore farmers and 18th instalment (October 5, 2024) of ₹20,000 crore provided to more than 9.4 crore farmers. The scheme was announced in 2019 and implemented with retrospective effect from 2018. The scheme provides an annual income support of ₹6,000 to eligible farmer families paid in three equal instalments of ₹2,000 each, disbursed every four months.

If the MSP@C2+50% had been implemented, then farmers cultivating 20 major crops alone would have earned ₹19 lakh Crore so that an amount of ₹11 lakh crore could have been retained even after gifting ₹7.80 lakh Crore to PM Modi.

The farmers of the country have seen the repeated betrayals by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for 11 years since 2014. In 2016 the PM had announced to double the farmers’ income by 2022; he failed miserably but ‘succeeded’ in doubling the cost of production and increasing manifold the assets of the corporate companies.