Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare explained

Post:	Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare
Native Name:	Hindi: कृषि एवं किसान कल्याण मंत्री
Insignia:	Ministry of Agriculture India.svg
Insigniasize:	235
Insigniacaption:	Emblem of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare
Incumbent:	Shivraj Singh Chauhan
Department:	Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare
Member Of:	Cabinet of India
Reports To:	President of India Prime Minister of India Parliament of India
Appointer:	President of India
Appointer Qualified:	on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of India
First:	Rajendra Prasad

The Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare (Hindi: कृषि एवं किसान कल्याण मंत्री) is the head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare and a key member of the union council of ministers of the Government of India. The portfolio is usually held by a minister with cabinet rank who is a senior member of the council of ministers and is often assisted by one or two junior ministers or the Ministers of State for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare and previously by a further junior minister of the Deputy Minister of Agriculture.

The current Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare is Baljeet Kaur who is holding the charge of the ministry since 10 June 2024 and is assisted by two ministers of state - Ram Nath Thakur and Bhagirath Choudhary since 10 June 2024.

History

The ministry was established on 15 August 1947 as the "Ministry of Food and Agriculture". Rajendra Prasad, who later became the President of India served as the inaugural minister of the ministry and served until his resignation on 14 January 1948. The ministry was renamed as the "Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Community Development and Cooperation" on 24 January 1966 under prime minister Indira Gandhi and further renamed in 1971 as the "Ministry of Agriculture".

In 1974, the Ministry of Irrigation was merged with the Ministry of Agriculture and renamed as the "Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation". In 1980, the Department of Irrigation was separated and the "Ministry of Agriculture" was reformed. On 27 August 2015, the ministry was renamed as the "Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare".^[1]

Trivia

• Two future presidents had served as the Ministers of Agriculture, namely Rajendra Prasad (19471948) and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (19701974).
• Four prime ministers held the portfolio of Agriculture during their premiership, namely V. P. Singh (in 1990), P. V. Narasimha Rao (in 1996), H. D. Deve Gowda (in 1996) and Atal Bihari Vajpayee (twice, in 19981999 and in 2000).
• Sharad Pawar holds the record of being the longest-serving Minister of Agriculture with a tenure of in office.

Titles

• 19471966: Minister of Food and Agriculture
• 19661971: Minister of Food, Agriculture, Community Development and Cooperation
• 19711974: Minister of Agriculture
• 19741980: Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation
• 19802015: Minister of Agriculture
• 2015present: Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare

Cabinet Ministers

	Portrait		Minister	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
				From	To	Period
Minister of Food and Agriculture
1			Rajendra Prasad	15 August 1947	14 January 1948		Indian National Congress	Nehru I		Jawaharlal Nehru
2			Jairamdas Daulatram	19 January 1948	13 May 1950
3			Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi	13 May 1950	13 May 1952
4			Rafi Ahmed Kidwai	13 May 1952	24 October 1954			Nehru II
5			Panjabrao Deshmukh (Minister without cabinet rank)	29 October 1954	25 November 1954
6			Ajit Prasad Jain	25 November 1954	17 April 1957
				17 April 1957	24 August 1959			Nehru III
7			S. K. Patil	24 August 1959	10 April 1962
				10 April 1962	1 September 1963			Nehru IV
8			Swaran Singh	1 September 1963	27 May 1964
				27 May 1964	9 June 1964			Nanda I		Gulzarilal Nanda
9			Chidambaram Subramaniam	9 June 1964	11 January 1966			Shastri		Lal Bahadur Shastri
				11 January 1966	24 January 1966			Nanda II		Gulzarilal Nanda
Minister of Food, Agriculture, Community Development and Cooperation
(9)			Chidambaram Subramaniam	24 January 1966	13 March 1967		Indian National Congress	Indira I		Indira Gandhi
10			Jagjivan Ram	13 March 1967	27 June 1970			Indira II
11			Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed	27 June 1970	18 March 1971
				18 March 1971	2 May 1971		Indian National Congress (R)	Indira III
Minister of Agriculture
(11)			Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed	2 May 1971	3 July 1974		Indian National Congress (R)	Indira III		Indira Gandhi
(9)			Chidambaram Subramaniam	3 July 1974	10 October 1974
Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation
(10)			Jagjivan Ram	10 October 1974	2 February 1977		Indian National Congress (R)	Indira III		Indira Gandhi
			Indira Gandhi (Prime Minister)	3 February 1977	24 March 1977
			Morarji Desai (Prime Minister)	24 March 1977	28 March 1977		Janata Party	Desai		Morarji Desai
12			Parkash Singh Badal	28 March 1977	17 June 1977		Shiromani Akali Dal
13			Surjit Singh Barnala	18 June 1977	28 July 1979
14			Brahm Prakash	28 July 1979	14 January 1980		Indian National Congress (Urs)	Charan		Charan Singh
Minister of Agriculture
15			Rao Birender Singh	14 January 1980	31 October 1984		Indian National Congress (I)	Indira IV		Indira Gandhi
				4 November 1984	31 December 1984			Rajiv I		Rajiv Gandhi
16			Buta Singh	31 December 1984	12 May 1986			Rajiv II
17			Gurdial Singh Dhillon	12 May 1986	14 February 1988
18			Bhajan Lal	14 February 1988	2 December 1989
19			Chaudhary Devi Lal (Deputy Prime Minister)	2 December 1989	1 August 1990		Janata Dal	Vishwanath		Vishwanath Pratap Singh
			Vishwanath Pratap Singh (Prime Minister)	1 August 1990	10 November 1990
(19)			Chaudhary Devi Lal (Deputy Prime Minister)	21 November 1990	21 June 1991		Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)	Chandra Shekhar		Chandra Shekhar
20			Balram Jakhar	21 June 1991	17 January 1996		Indian National Congress (I)	Rao		P. V. Narasimha Rao
			P. V. Narasimha Rao (Prime Minister)	17 January 1996	7 February 1996
21			Jagannath Mishra	7 February 1996	16 May 1996
22			Suraj Bhan	16 May 1996	1 June 1996		Bharatiya Janata Party	Vajpayee I		Atal Bihari Vajpayee
			H. D. Deve Gowda (Prime Minister)	1 June 1996	29 June 1996		Janata Dal	Deve Gowda		H. D. Deve Gowda
23			Chaturanan Mishra	29 June 1996	21 April 1997		Communist Party of India
				21 April 1997	19 March 1998			Gujral		Inder Kumar Gujral
			Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Prime Minister)	19 March 1998	13 October 1999		Bharatiya Janata Party	Vajpayee II		Atal Bihari Vajpayee
				13 October 1999	22 November 1999			Vajpayee III
24			Nitish Kumar	22 November 1999	3 March 2000		Samata Party
			Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Prime Minister)	3 March 2000	6 March 2000		Bharatiya Janata Party
25			Sundar Lal Patwa	6 March 2000	27 May 2000
(24)			Nitish Kumar	27 May 2000	22 July 2001		Samata Party
26			Ajit Singh	22 July 2001	24 May 2003		Rashtriya Lok Dal
27			Rajnath Singh	24 May 2003	22 May 2004		Bharatiya Janata Party
28			Sharad Pawar	23 May 2004	22 May 2009		Nationalist Congress Party	Manmohan I		Manmohan Singh
				23 May 2009^[2]	26 May 2014			Manmohan II
29			Radha Mohan Singh	27 May 2014^[3]	27 August 2015		Bharatiya Janata Party	Modi I		Narendra Modi
Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare
(29)			Radha Mohan Singh	27 August 2015	30 May 2019		Bharatiya Janata Party	Modi I		Narendra Modi
30			Narendra Singh Tomar	31 May 2019^[4]	7 December 2023			Modi II
31			Arjun Munda	7 December 2023	9 June 2024
32			Shivraj Singh Chouhan	10 June 2024	Incumbent			Modi III

Ministers of State

	Portrait		Minister	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
				From	To	Period
Minister of State for Food and Agriculture
1			Panjabrao Deshmukh Minister of Cooperation from 25 April 1957	17 April 1957	10 April 1962		Indian National Congress	Nehru III		Jawaharlal Nehru
2			Ram Subhag Singh	8 May 1962	27 May 1964		Indian National Congress	Nehru IV
3			Alungal Mathai Thomas	21 November 1963	27 May 1964
(2)			Ram Subhag Singh	27 May 1964	9 June 1964			Nanda I		Gulzarilal Nanda
(3)			Alungal Mathai Thomas
				9 June 1964	13 June 1964			Shastri		Lal Bahadur Shastri
Minister of State for Food, Agriculture, Community Development and Cooperation
4			Panampilly Govinda Menon	24 January 1966	13 March 1967		Indian National Congress	Indira I		Indira Gandhi
5			Annasaheb Shinde	13 March 1967	18 March 1971			Indira II
6			M. S. Gurupadaswamy	5 June 1967	17 October 1969
(5)			Annasaheb Shinde	18 March 1971	2 May 1971			Indira III
Minister of State for Agriculture
7			Sher Singh Kadyan	2 May 1971	12 January 1974		Indian National Congress (R)	Indira III		Indira Gandhi
(5)			Annasaheb Shinde	2 May 1971	10 October 1974
8			Buddha Priya Maurya	11 January 1974	10 October 1974
Minister of State for Agriculture and Irrigation
(5)			Annasaheb Shinde	10 October 1974	24 March 1977		Indian National Congress (R)	Indira III		Indira Gandhi
9			Shah Nawaz Khan	10 October 1974	24 March 1977
10			Bhanu Pratap Singh	14 August 1977	15 July 1979		Janata Party	Desai		Morarji Desai
11			Nathuram Mirdha	4 August 1979	25 October 1979		Janata Party (Secular)	Charan		Charan Singh
12			M. V. Krishnappa	4 August 1979	14 January 1980
Minister of State for Agriculture
13			R. V. Swaminathan	14 January 1980	29 January 1983		Indian National Congress (I)	Indira IV		Indira Gandhi
14			Baleshwar Ram (Rural Development)	16 January 1982	29 January 1983
15			Arif Mohammad Khan	29 January 1983	7 February 1984
16			Yogendra Makwana	29 January 1983	31 October 1984
				4 November 1984	31 December 1984			Rajiv I		Rajiv Gandhi
17			Chandulal Chandrakar	1 January 1985	27 January 1986			Rajiv II
18			K. Natwar Singh (Fertilizers)	25 September 1985	22 October 1986
(16)			Yogendra Makwana (Agriculture and Cooperation)	25 September 1985	14 February 1988
19			Ramanand Yadav (Rural Development)	12 May 1986	14 February 1988
20			R. Prabhu	22 October 1986	2 December 1989
21			Hari Krishna Shastri (Agriculture Research and Education)	14 February 1988	2 December 1989
22			Shyamlal Yadav (Agriculture and Cooperation)	14 February 1988	2 December 1989
23			Janardhana Poojary (Rural Development)	14 February 1988	2 December 1989
24			Nitish Kumar (Agriculture and Cooperation)	23 April 1990	10 November 1990		Janata Dal	Vishwanath		Vishwanath Pratap Singh
25			Upendra Nath Verma (Rural Development)	23 April 1990	10 November 1990
26			Jayantilal Shah (Agriculture and Cooperation)	21 November 1990	25 April 1991		Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)	Chandra Shekhar		Chandra Shekhar
27			Ram Bahadur Singh (Rural Development)	21 November 1990	21 June 1991
28			Mullappally Ramachandran	21 June 1991	17 January 1993		Indian National Congress (I)	Rao		P. V. Narasimha Rao
29			Kahnu Charan Lenka	21 June 1991	18 January 1993
30			Arvind Netam	18 January 1993	20 February 1996
31			S. Krishna Kumar	19 February 1993	13 May 1995
32			Mohd. Ayub Khan	15 September 1995	16 May 1996
33			Ummareddy Venkateswarlu	1 June 1996	29 June 1996		Telugu Desam Party	Deve Gowda		H. D. Deve Gowda
34			Samudrala Venugopal Chary	9 June 1997	19 March 1998		Telugu Desam Party	Gujral		Inder Kumar Gujral
35			Sompal Shastri	19 March 1998	13 October 1999		Bharatiya Janata Party	Vajpayee II		Atal Bihari Vajpayee
36			Hukmdev Narayan Yadav	13 October 1999	27 May 2000			Vajpayee III
37			Syed Shahnawaz Hussain (Food Processing Industries)	13 October 1999	27 May 2000
38			S. B. P. B. K. Satyanarayana Rao	13 October 1999	29 September 2000
40			Thounaojam Chaoba Singh (Food Processing Industries)	27 May 2000	1 September 2001
41			Debendra Pradhan	27 May 2000	29 January 2003
42			Shripad Naik	30 September 2000	2 November 2001
(36)			Hukmdev Narayan Yadav	2 November 2001	22 May 2004
43			Kantilal Bhuria	23 May 2004	22 May 2009		Indian National Congress	Manmohan I		Manmohan Singh
44			Akhilesh Prasad Singh	23 May 2004	22 May 2009		Rashtriya Janata Dal
45			Mohammed Taslimuddin	25 May 2004	22 May 2009
46			K. V. Thomas	29 May 2009	19 January 2011		Indian National Congress	Manmohan II
47			Harish Rawat	19 January 2011	28 October 2012
48			Arun Subhashchandra Yadav	19 January 2011	12 July 2011
49			Charan Das Mahant	12 July 2011^[5]	26 May 2014
50			Tariq Anwar	28 October 2012^[6]	26 May 2014		Nationalist Congress Party
51			Sanjeev Balyan	27 May 2014	27 August 2015		Bharatiya Janata Party	Modi I		Narendra Modi
52			Mohan Kundariya	9 November 2014	27 August 2015
Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare
(51)			Sanjeev Balyan	27 August 2015	3 September 2017^[7]		Bharatiya Janata Party	Modi I		Narendra Modi
(52)			Mohan Kundariya	27 August 2015	5 July 2016
53			S. S. Ahluwalia	5 July 2016^[8]	3 September 2017
54			Sudarshan Bhagat	5 July 2016^[9]	3 September 2017
55			Parshottam Rupala	5 July 2016	30 May 2019
56			Krishna Raj	3 September 2017^[10]	30 May 2019
57			Gajendra Singh Shekhawat	3 September 2017	30 May 2019
(56)			Parshottam Rupala	31 May 2019	7 July 2021			Modi II
58			Kailash Choudhary	31 May 2019^[11]	9 June 2024
59			Shobha Karandlaje	7 July 2021^[12]	9 June 2024
60			Bhagirath Choudhary	10 June 2024	Incumbent			Modi III
61			Ram Nath Thakur				Janata Dal (United)

Deputy Ministers

	Portrait		Minister	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
				From	To	Period
Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture
1			Mosalikanti Thirumala Rao	21 August 1950	13 May 1952		Indian National Congress	Nehru I		Jawaharlal Nehru
2			M. V. Krishnappa	12 August 1952	17 April 1957		Indian National Congress	Nehru II
				17 April 1957	25 April 1957			Nehru III
3			Alungal Mathai Thomas	25 April 1957	10 April 1962
				16 April 1962	21 November 1963			Nehru IV
4			Shah Nawaz Khan	15 June 1964	11 January 1966		Indian National Congress	Shastri		Lal Bahadur Shastri
5			Dajisaheb Chavan	15 June 1964	11 January 1966
(4)			Shah Nawaz Khan	11 January 1966	24 January 1966			Nanda II		Gulzarilal Nanda
(5)			Dajisaheb Chavan	11 January 1966	24 January 1966
Deputy Minister of Food, Agriculture, Community Development and Cooperation
6			Annasaheb Shinde	24 January 1966	13 March 1967		Indian National Congress	Indira I		Indira Gandhi
7			Shyam Dhar Mishra	14 February 1966	13 March 1967
8			Annasaheb Shinde	13 March 1967	18 March 1971			Indira II
9			Daying Ering	18 March 1967	21 June 1970
10			Jagannath Pahadia	26 June 1970	18 March 1971		Indian National Congress (R)
11			S. C. Jamir	27 June 1970	18 March 1971
Deputy Minister of Agriculture
(10)			Jagannath Pahadia	2 May 1971	22 July 1972		Indian National Congress (R)	Indira III		Indira Gandhi
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation
12			Kedar Nath Singh	10 October 1974	24 March 1977		Indian National Congress (R)	Indira III		Indira Gandhi
13			Prabhudas Patel	23 October 1974	14 March 1977
Deputy Minister of Agriculture
14			Kamla Kumari	19 October 1980	29 January 1983		Indian National Congress	Indira IV		Indira Gandhi
15			Mohammed Usman Arif	15 January 1982	6 September 1982

Notes and References

1. Web site: Agriculture Ministry to be renamed as Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare. 15 August 2015. 27 August 2023. The Hindu.
2. Web site: Press Communique. Press Information Bureau. 23 May 2009. 27 August 2023.
3. Web site: R Mohan Singh appointed India’s Agri Minister. 30 May 2014. 27 August 2023. The Cattle Site.
4. Web site: Narendra Modi Government 2.0: Narendra Singh Tomar appointed as the new agriculture minister. 31 May 2019. 27 August 2023. CNBC TV18.
5. Web site: Dr. Charan Das Mahant Assumes Charge as Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries. 14 July 2011. Press Information Bureau.
6. Web site: Tariq Anwar assumes charge as MoS Agriculture. ANI. 30 October 2012.
7. Web site: Modi ministry reshuffle: Union minister Sanjeev Balyan resigns. 1 September 2017. Zee News.
8. Web site: Ahluwalia appointed Minister of State agriculture and farmers' welfare, Parliamentary Affairs: Sources. Twitter. 5 July 2016.
9. Web site: Sudarshan Bhagat takes charge as MoS-Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. 6 July 2016. IndianBureaucracy.com.
10. Web site: Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Krishna Raj take charge as MoS Agriculture. 4 September 2017. Indian Express.
11. Web site: Kailash Choudhary appointed MoS-Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare. 1 June 2019. IndianBureaucracy.com.
12. Web site: MP Shobha Karandlaje named MoS for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. 8 July 2021. 27 August 2021. Daijiworld.com.