💰 Economy & FinanceMAINS · GS3.4 · GS3.5

India logs record foodgrain and farm exports

A government stocktake of India's farm output, exports and the scheme architecture that underpins them.

What happened

A Press Information Bureau backgrounder consolidated India's agricultural performance, reporting a record foodgrain output of 357.73 million metric tonnes (MMT) in 2024-25, up 25.43 MMT over the previous year.
Horticulture output was placed at 362.08 million tonnes, again exceeding total foodgrain production — a pattern India has sustained for over a decade.
Agricultural and allied exports were reported to have risen from USD 34.5 billion in FY20 to USD 51.1 billion in FY25, a compound annual growth rate of 8.2%, with the share of processed-food exports climbing from 14.9% (FY18) to 20.4% (FY25).
The document positioned this output against the support spine of central schemes — PM-KISAN, PMFBY, MSP for 22 mandated crops, the Soil Health Card programme and the e-NAM trading platform.
It is a status-and-stocktake release rather than the launch of any single new instrument; its examinable value lies in the consolidated production ranks, export figures and the family of schemes it names together.

Background & context

Agriculture remains the demographic and social anchor of the Indian economy even as its share of value added has fallen. The release notes that the sector employs about 46.1% of the workforce, supports roughly 55% of the population, and contributes about one-fifth of Gross Value Added (GVA), growing at an average of about 4.4% a year over the preceding five years. That gap — a large share of people on a shrinking share of output — is the structural problem every farm scheme cited here is built to address: raising productivity and incomes for a workforce still concentrated on the land.

The schemes named are not new creations but an accumulated stack built over the last decade, each administered through the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (and, for processing, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries). The release records that the Department's budget rose from ₹21,933.50 crore in 2013-14 to ₹1,27,290.16 crore in 2025-26, with ₹1,30,561.38 crore provided for 2026-27 — the fiscal expansion behind the scheme architecture. For the exam, the value of a consolidated backgrounder like this is precisely that it lays the whole family of instruments side by side, which is how the "how many of these / match the pairs" questions are framed.

For Prelims

Foodgrain & horticulture (2024-25): foodgrain 357.73 MMT (record, +25.43 MMT YoY); horticulture 362.08 MT.
World rank — No. 1: pulses (25.68 MT), millets (18.59 MT), spices (≈12 MMT, 2023-24), coconut (≈21.3 billion nuts), and dry onion (≈25% of world output).
World rank — No. 2: rice (150.18 MT), wheat (117.94 MT), sugarcane (454.61 MT), cotton (≈5.05 MT), tea (1.203 MT, Apr–Dec 2024-25), and fruits & vegetables.
Leading producing States: rice — Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal; wheat — Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab; pulses — Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan; millets — Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka.
Exports: agri & allied USD 34.5 bn (FY20) → USD 51.1 bn (FY25), CAGR 8.2%; processed-food share 14.9% (FY18) → 20.4% (FY25); rice exports USD 12.95 bn (2024-25).
PM-KISAN: a Central Sector Scheme (100% Union-funded), ₹6,000/year in three ₹2,000 instalments via Direct Benefit Transfer; ₹4.27 lakh crore disbursed over 22 instalments (as on 17 March 2026).
PM Kisan Maandhan Yojana (PMKMY): voluntary contributory pension — ₹3,000/month at age 60, entry age 18–40; ≈24.95 lakh enrolled farmers.
PMFBY (Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana): insured 4.19 crore farmers over 6.2 crore ha in 2024-25; claims of over ₹1.90 lakh crore paid since 2016-17.
MSP: set for 22 mandated crops at a level of at least 1.5× the cost of production.
Soil Health Card: tests 12 parameters (N, P, K, S, Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, B, pH, EC, Organic Carbon), issued every two years; ≈25.55 crore cards issued.
e-NAM (National Agriculture Market): links 1,656 mandis across 23 States and 4 UTs, ≈1.8 crore farmers and 4,724 FPOs — the "One Nation One Market" idea for produce.
Missions named: National Food Security and Nutrition Mission (NFSNM, formerly NFSM, centrally sponsored); Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses (2025–31); National Mission on Edible Oils — Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) and NMEO-Oilseeds (self-reliance target 2030-31).
Procurement: RMS 2025-26 wheat 300.35 LMT; KMS 2024-25 paddy 832.17 LMT. NFSA covers 81.35 crore beneficiaries; One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) operational across all 36 States/UTs with 99.8% Aadhaar seeding.

For UPSC: 2024-25 foodgrain output is a record 357.73 MMT. India is world No. 1 in pulses, millets, spices, coconut and dry onion, and No. 2 in rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton, tea and fruits & vegetables. PM-KISAN is a 100% centrally funded Central Sector Scheme; NFSNM is a centrally sponsored scheme — that funding distinction is a classic trap.

Mapping the scheme family (so "match the pairs" survives). The instruments named here split cleanly by function. Income support: PM-KISAN (₹6,000/yr DBT) and PMKMY (pension). Risk cover: PMFBY (crop insurance) and the Kisan Credit Card (7.72 crore operative accounts; ground-level credit disbursement of ₹28.67 lakh crore in FY24-25). Price assurance: MSP for 22 crops and the procurement system feeding NFSA. Soil and water: Soil Health Card (12 parameters) and PMKSY irrigation (gross irrigated area share 55.8%). Marketing and aggregation: e-NAM, the 10,000 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) registered under the 2020 scheme, and 27,554 Custom Hiring Centres for farm machinery. Food processing: PMKSY (Sampada), the Production Linked Incentive Scheme for the Food Processing Industry (PLISFI) and the PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) scheme.

What this is NOT. This backgrounder is not the announcement of a new mission or a budget; it is a consolidated stocktake. PM-KISAN is not a centrally sponsored scheme requiring State cost-sharing — it is a Central Sector Scheme funded wholly by the Union. MSP is not a statutory legal guarantee of purchase — it is an administered price recommended by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) and notified by government; only declared, mandated procurement (chiefly wheat and paddy) is actually bought at scale. The Soil Health Card scheme is distinct from the broader soil-and-irrigation programmes; do not conflate its 12 testing parameters with PMKSY's irrigation mandate. NFSNM (food security and nutrition) should not be confused with the consumer-side National Food Security Act (NFSA), which governs subsidised grain distribution.

The full set, for "how many" questions. Beyond the headline schemes, the release situates farming inside newer pushes: natural farming (17,632 clusters, 6.39 lakh ha, 15.79 lakh farmers), the Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses (2025–31) and the edible-oils self-reliance missions targeting 2030-31, plus the Union Budget 2026-27's promotion of high-value crops — coconut, sandalwood, cocoa, cashew, agar, almonds, walnuts and pine nuts. The whole effort is officially linked to the Sustainable Development Goals — SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), 12 (Responsible Consumption) and 13 (Climate Action).

Why it matters

A record harvest matters less as a single number than as evidence on three exam-relevant questions: food security, farmer income, and the export-versus-domestic-price balance. On food security, output well above population growth, paired with NFSA coverage of 81.35 crore people and a procurement system buying 300.35 LMT of wheat and 832.17 LMT of paddy, is what insulates India from the kind of grain shocks seen elsewhere. On incomes, the persistent gap between a 46% share of employment and a one-fifth share of GVA is the reason direct transfers (PM-KISAN) and insurance (PMFBY) exist — they cushion a workforce whose per-capita farm earnings lag the rest of the economy. On value addition, the rise of processed food from 14.9% to 20.4% of agri exports is the most strategically important shift in the data: it is the move from exporting raw calories to exporting value, which is where farm incomes and rural jobs can actually grow. The same record output also creates a policy tension the release implies but does not resolve — surplus and strong exports sit alongside the political pressure for legally guaranteed MSP, and the diversification toward pulses, oilseeds and high-value crops is the government's stated answer to the rice-wheat-water overuse that record cereal output entrenches.

For Mains

Anchor

A question on inclusive growth in agriculture or on "doubling farmer incomes" can be built directly on this release: the scheme stack (income support, insurance, price assurance, marketing) is the institutional answer to the employment-versus-GVA gap.

Data

Hard figures to substantiate any farm answer — foodgrain 357.73 MMT (record), exports USD 51.1 bn (FY25, CAGR 8.2%), processed-food share 20.4%, PM-KISAN ₹4.27 lakh cr disbursed, PMFBY claims over ₹1.90 lakh cr.

Exemplify

e-NAM (1,656 mandis), 10,000 FPOs, 27,554 Custom Hiring Centres and natural-farming clusters are concrete examples of marketing reform, aggregation and sustainable-farming interventions.

Problematise

The 46% employment vs ~20% GVA gap, the rice-wheat-water concentration that record cereal output entrenches, and the contrast between administered MSP and demand for a legal guarantee are the tensions to flag.

Way forward

Diversification to pulses, oilseeds and high-value crops (the Aatmanirbharta in Pulses and edible-oils missions), value addition through food processing, and market integration via e-NAM and FPOs.

Position

Government's stated stance: self-reliance in pulses and edible oils by the early 2030s, MSP at ≥1.5× cost of production for 22 crops, and "One Nation One Market" through e-NAM.

Deploys into: GS3.4 (cropping patterns, e-technology and marketing of agricultural produce) and GS3.5 (MSP, PDS, buffer stocks, food security, and the direct/insurance support architecture for farmers).

PIB Backgrounder · 2026-04-04 · PRID 2248987 · PIB source ↗