कृषि की लाभप्रदता बढ़ाने के क़दम उठाना, लागत पर कम से कम 50% लाभ सुनिश्चित करके, सस्ते कृषि आदान और ऋण देकर।

This entry was imported as a 2014 promise to double farmers' income by 2022. That target was not in the 2014 manifesto; it was announced by the Prime Minister at a rally in Bareilly in February 2016. What the manifesto does promise is narrower and more precise, and it is one of the most consequential lines in the document: the party will "take steps to enhance the profitability in agriculture, by ensuring a minimum of 50% profits over the cost of production."

That formula was adopted, four years into the term after next. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare told the Lok Sabha on 22 July 2025: "The Union Budget for 2018-19 had announced the pre-determined principle to keep MSPs at levels of one and half times of the cost of production. Accordingly, Government had increased MSPs for all mandated Kharif, Rabi and other Commercial crops with a minimum return of 50 percent over all India weighted average cost of production from year 2018-19 onwards."

On the words of the promise, that is delivery — late, but delivery.

The dispute is over which cost. The ministry sets out what the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices counts: "all paid out costs such as those incurred on account of hired human labour, bullock labour/machine labour, rent paid for leased in land, expenses incurred on use of material inputs like seeds, fertilizers, manures, irrigation charges, depreciation on implements and farm buildings, interest on working capital, diesel/electricity for operation of pump sets etc., miscellaneous expenses and imputed value of family labour."

Read the list carefully. It includes rent paid for leased land and the value of family labour. It does not include the rental value of land the farmer owns, or interest on the farmer's own fixed capital. That is the difference between A2+FL, the measure used, and C2, the comprehensive cost. The Swaminathan Commission recommended 50 per cent over C2; farmers' organisations have demanded it; the government applies the margin to a lower base. Fifty per cent over a smaller number is a smaller price.

The second limit is reach. An announced price benefits a farmer only if someone buys at it. Between 2022-23 and 2024-25 the government procured 3,382.64 lakh metric tonnes across all 22 mandated crops, paying ₹8,43,445.57 crore — and paddy and wheat alone account for 3,209.61 lakh tonnes of that. Pulses, for which MSP is announced every year, came to 49.11 lakh tonnes. For most crops in most states, MSP is a published number rather than a price received. Maharashtra, the state the question asked about, procured no wheat at all in those three years.

The manifesto's other limbs in the same sentence — cheaper agricultural inputs and credit — are addressed through fertiliser subsidy and the interest subvention scheme and are not assessed here.

Our verdict is lacks context.