Lok Sabha Question No. 54 (STARRED), answered on 2018-02-06
Subject: Roadmap for Growth of Farm Sector
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Gurjeet Singh,Aujla, JYOTIRADITYA MADHAVRAO SCINDIA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, COOPERATION & FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK  SABHA

## STARRED QUESTION NO. 54

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 6 TH  FEBRUARY, 2018

## ROADMAP FOR GROWTH OF FARM SECTOR

- *54.      SHRI GURJEET SINGH AUJLA: SHRI JYOTIRADITYA M. SCINDIA:

Will  the  Minister  of  AGRICULTURE  AND  FARMERS  WELFARE कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण ½ãâ¨ããè be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  unveiled  a  roadmap  to  take  the  growth  of  the  farm sector to new heights;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether  the  growth  of  the  farm  sector  has  any  impact  on  the  income  and  other infrastructure of farmers across the country; and

- (d) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण ½ãâ¨ããè

## (SHRI RADHA MOHAN SINGH)

- (a) to (d): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (d)  OF  LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 54   DUE FOR REPLY ON 6 TH  FEBRUARY, 2018.

(a) to (d): In order to take the growth of farm sector to new heights and to achieve the target of doubling the income of farmers by 2022, the Government has constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee  on  13.04.2016  under  the Chairmanship  of Chief Executive Officer, National Rainfed Area Authority, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation  and  Farmers Welfare  to  examine  issues  relating  to  doubling  of  farmers' income and recommend a strategy to achieve the same by the year 2022. Alongside working  on  a  comprehensive  strategy,  the  Committee  has  been  parallelly  suggesting various  intervention  for  consideration.  In  order  to  involve  the  stakeholders  across  the country  in  finalizing  the  strategy,  the  Committee  has  been  placing  its  reports  in installments. As of now, nine Volumes of the draft Report prepared by the Committee have been uploaded on the website of this Department (http://agricoop.nic.in/doublingfarmers)  for  seeking  public  opinion.  Some  of  the  recommendations  of  the  Committee are parallelly being implemented.  They include the following:

- i. A  comprehensive  State  Market  Act  to  introduce  reforms  and  competition  for creating  a  competitive  price  discovery  environment.  Following  this  A  Model State/UT Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion & Facilitation) Act, 2017 has been drafted, approved and shared with the States.
- ii. A Model Contract Farming Act is now at the final stage to help farmers enter into pre-season price agreement on their produce.
- iii.   Restructuring  of  Directorate  of  Marketing  &  Inspection  (DMI),  so  as  to  provide technology backstopping to a system for price and demand forecast.
- iv.   A five year Roadmap for Pulses Production and achieve a production status of 24 million MTs.

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- v. A  comprehensive  roadmap  for  increasing  the  production  of  oilseeds  in  the country.
- vi. Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY) scheme has been approved for continuation for  three  years  as  Remunerative  Approaches  for  Agriculture  &  Allied  Sector Rejuvenation  i.e.  (RKVY-RAFTAAR)  which  aims  at  making  the  farming  as  a remunerative  economic  activity  through  multi  pronged  approach  along  with holistic development of agriculture and allied sector. The new Guidelines provide for major allocation for creation of production and post-production infrastructure, beside promoting agri-enterprises and incubation facilities.
- vii.  An  institutional  mechanism  at  State  and  District  levels  to  undertake  integrated and comprehensive review of agriculture and allied activities and farmers welfare.
- viii. Computerization of Primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACSs)A budgeting provision has been made to computerize all the PACSs in a period of 3 years (2017-18 to 2019-20).
- ix.    A  new  market  architecture  under  which  22,000  rural  haats  to  be  upgraded  as centers of aggregation and direct sell-purchase of agri-commodities.

The Government is aiming to reorient the agriculture sector by making it incomecentric rather than purely a production-centric activity. A farmer's income is a basket of earnings  from  agriculture  (including  horticulture),  allied  activities  like  dairy,  livestock, poultry,  fishery  etc.  and  ancillary activities like  beekeeping  etc.  Apart from  these farm incomes,  he  also  earns  from  other  activities  like  wage  labour,  off-farm  activities  etc. Earnings from agriculture constitute the principal source of income of a farmer.

At  present,  the  Government  is  implementing  various  schemes  to  synchronise with higher gains for the farmers. The details are as follows:-

-  For higher production through productivity gains
- o National Food Security Mission (NFSM)- cereals, pulses, oilseeds, nutririch cereals, commercial crops
- o Mission  for  Integrated  Development  of  Horticulture  (MIDH)-  high  growth rate of horticulture crops.
-  For reduction in cost of cultivation
- o Soil  Health  Card  (SHC)  (2  year  cycle)-  ensure  judicious  use  of  fertilizer application and thus save money of farmers.
- o Neem Coated Urea (NCU) (universal)- is being promoted to regulate use of  urea,  enhance  availability  of  nitrogen  to  the  crop  and  reduce  cost  of fertilizer application
- o The  Pradhan  Mantri  Krishi  Sinchai  Yojana  (PMKSY)  -  micro  irrigation component (1.2 million ha/yr target)- with the motto of 'Har Khet Ko Paani' for  providing  end-to-end  solutions  in  irrigation  supply  chain,  comprising water sources, distribution network and farm level applications.
-  To ensure remunerative returns
- o National  Agriculture  Market  Scheme  (E-NAM)  is  an  innovative  market process  to  revolutionize  agri-markets  by  ensuring  better  price  discovery, bringing in transparency and  competition to enable farmers to get improved remuneration for their produce moving towards 'One Nation One Market'

- o A new model 'The Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion  &  Facilitation)  Act,  2017'  has  been  released  on  24th  April, 2017  for  its  adoption  by  States/UTs.  This  has  been  derived  after  many deliberations  over  the  earlier  model  APMC  Act  2003  and  the  need  for inclusion  of  progressive  reforms  required  in  the  agriculture  marketing sector.  In the Model APLM Act, 2017, provisions  includes setting up of private markets, direct marketing,  farmer-consumer  markets, special commodity  markets,  declaring  warehouses/silos/cold  storages  or  such structures  as  market  sub  yards.  The  model  Act  is  in  different  stages  of adoption by various states.
- o Warehousing and post-harvest loans at concessional rate of interest so as to  discourage  distress  sale  by  farmers  and  to  encourage  them  to  store their produce in warehouses against negotiable receipts.
- o Minimum  Support  Price  (MSP)  is  notified  by  the  Government  for  large number of crops, that represent major cultivated area of the country. The objective of the Government's price policy is to ensure remunerative prices to  farmers  by  offering  to  procure  their  produce  at  MSP,  if  prices  in  the market fall below MSP.
- o Price  Support  Scheme  (PSS)  and  Market  Intervention  Scheme  (MIS)  Procurement  of  oilseeds,  pulses  and  cotton  are  undertaken  by  central agencies at MSP under Price Support Scheme (PSS) at the request of the concerned State Government. Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) supports procurement of agriculture & horticulture products, which are perishable in nature and MSPs are not notified.

-  For risk management and sustainable practices
- o Pradhan  Mantri  Fasal  Bima  Yojana  (PMFBY)  &  Restructured  Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWCIS) (cover 50% GCA by 2018-19)provides  insurance  cover  at  all  stages  of  the  crop  cycle  including  postharvest  risks  in  specified  instances  and  available  to  the  farmers  at  very low rates of premium.
- o Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY)- is being implemented with a view  to  promote  organic  farming  in  the  country.    This  will  improve  soil health and organic matter content and increase net income of the farmer
- o Mission  organic  Farming  in  North-East-  MoVCD  (NE)-  Realizing  the potential of organic farming in the North Eastern Region of the country.
- o Allied activities as follows:

'Har Medh  Par Ped' launched during 2016-17 to encourage tree plantation on farm land ' Har Medh Par Ped', along with crops/ cropping system.  The  scheme  is  being  implemented  in  the  states  those  have notified liberalized transit regulations for transport of timber. Implementation  of  the  scheme  has  been  started  in  8  States  and  during 2016-17 and in 12 more States during 2017-18 after notifying liberalized transit regulations.  Other  States are also being  motivated  to notify liberalized transit regulations. Agroforestry will not only help in increasing soil  organic  carbon  but  also  in  creating  additional  source  of  income  to farmers.

Bee-Keeping: During the last 3 year (2014-15 and 2016-17) the number of honey  bee  colonies  that  were  20  lacs  in  2014-15  have  increased  to  30 lacs during 2016-17, registering an increase of 10 lacs. Honey production in  2011-14  was  2,18,950  metric  tons  which  has  increased  to  2,63,930 metric tons during 2014-17 i.e an increase of  20.54%.

Dairying: Dairy sector is being promoted through schemes like Rashtriya Gokul  Mission,  National  Bovine  Productivity  Mission  and  various  dairy development related projects are being implemented.

Fisheries: Foreseeing high potential in fisheries sector, a Blue Revolution with  multi  dimensional  activities  mainly  focusing  on  fisheries  production, both inland and marine is being implemented.

The  growth  of  farm  sector  Gross  Value  Added  (GVA)  directly  reflects  the increase  in  income  of  the  agricultural  households  from  crops  and  allied  sectors  like forestry,  fishing  and  animal  husbandry.    The  budget  for  2018-19  has  announced  the pre-determined principles of providing for a Minimum Support Price (MSP) which is at least one and half times of the cost of production which would enhance the income level of the agricultural household.

Besides,  Government  has  extend  a  favourable  taxation  treatment  to  Farmer Producers Organisations (FPOs) for  helping farmers aggregate their needs  of  inputs, farm services, processing and sale operations.

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