Lok Sabha Question No. 3525 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-08-10
Subject: Crop-specific Research Institutions
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Girish Bhalchandra Bapat, Rahul Ramesh Shewale, Pritam Gopinath Munde

कृ षि

और

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH & EDUCATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3525

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 10 TH  AUGUST, 2021

## CROP-SPECIFIC RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS

3525.  SHRI GIRISH BHALCHANDRA BAPAT: SHRI RAHUL RAMESH SHEWALE: DR. PRITAM GOPINATHRAO MUNDE:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ षि और ककसान कल्याण मंत्री be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has established commodity/crop-specific  research  institutions  throughout  the  country,  if  so,  the  details thereof;
- (b) the extent to which these institutions are able to provide vital information required by the farmers and in extending market intelligence;
- (c) whether the Union Government is planning to develop any mechanism to ensure fair and remunerative prices to farmers throughout the year, if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether farmers are not reaping the benefits of the introduction of e-market systems in Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs), if so, the reasons therefor; and
- (e) the steps taken by the Union Government to evolve a holistic approach to address the agrarian crisis?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF AGRICUTLRURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

ककसान

कल्याण

मंत्री

( SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR )

(a) & (b): Yes,  Sir.    The  ICAR  has  established  113  commodity  specific  Institutions throughout  the  country  which  include  28  of  Crop  Science,  23  of  Horticulture  Science,  15 Natural  Resource  Management,  5  of  Agricultural  Engineering,  19  of  Animal  Science,  8 Fisheries Science, 11 of Agricultural Extension and 4 of Agricultural Education.

The ICAR's national level research institutes and its All India Coordinated Research Project  (AICRP)  network  of  state/central  agricultural  universities  and  725 Krishi  Vigyan Kendras  (KVKs) established  across  the  country  are  truly  the  hubs  for  knowledge  and technical resources on all aspects of agriculture.

All these institutes provide beneficial information to the farmers on various aspects of agriculture  sciences  and  technology  through  a  number  of  outreach  programmes.  These programmes  include  -  Frontline  Demonstrations  (FLDs),  Cluster  Frontline  Demonstrations (C-FLDs), Farmers Fairs, Field Days, farmers exposure visits, Print and Electronic mass/social media programme through radio/TV/Mobile/Internet, trainings and distribution of technical literature, etc.  The ICAR institutes  also conduct entrepreneurial development and start  up  support  programmes  through  many  Agri-Business  Incubation  Centres  (ABIC) established across the institutes and KVKs.

All the 725 KVKs took up a large number of extension activities during 2020-21 which include  36000  On  Farm  Trials,  216000  Frontline  Demonstrations,  training  of  15.76  lakhs farmers, messaging of about 6458 lakh mobile agro-advisories, etc. The market intelligence models developed by the ICAR are used by the State Agricultural Universities to generate price forecasts for important agricultural commodities.

(c) to (e): The  Government  in  its  Union  Budget  for  2018-19  had  announced  the  predetermined principle to keep Minimum Support Price (MSP) at a level of one and half times of the  cost  of  production.  Accordingly,  Government  has  increased  the  MSP  for  all  mandated Kharif,  Rabi and other commercial crops with a return of atleast 50 per cent over all India weighted average cost of production from the agricultural year 2018-19 onwards. In addition to  cost  of  production,  Commission  for  Agricultural  Cost  &  Prices  (CACP)  also  considers various  other  factors  while  recommending  MSP  which  include  overall  demand-supply situations of various crops in domestic and world markets, domestic and international prices, inter-crop price parity, terms of trade between agriculture and non-agriculture sector among others.

Several steps have been taken by the Ministry for the benefits of farmers by way of providing  schemes  and  interventions  for  improving  the  income  of  farmers.    The  details  of some of such steps are given at Annexure .

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## [Part (c) to (e) of Lok Sabha USQ No.3525 dated 10/08/2021]

## Schemes and interventions for improving the income of farmers:

(1) With  a  view  to  provide  income  support  to  all  farmer  families  across  the  country, Government  had  started  a  new  Central  Sector  Scheme,  namely,  ' Pradhan  Mantri  Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) '. The scheme aims to provide a payment of Rs 6000/- per year, in 3 equal installments. A total of Rs. 1.39 lakh crore has been released so far to 11.05 crore farmer families.

- (2) With a view to provide social security net for Small and Marginal Farmers (SMF) as they have minimal or no savings to provide for old age and to support them in the event of consequent loss of livelihood, the Government is implementing a new Central Sector Scheme i.e. Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maan Dhan Yojana (PM-KMY) for providing old age pension to these farmers. Under this Scheme, provision has been made for a minimum fixed pension of Rs. 3000/- to the eligible small and marginal farmers, subject to certain exclusion clauses, on attaining the age of 60 years. A total of 21,39,756 farmers have joined the scheme till now.
- (3) To  ensure  flow  of  adequate  credit,  Government  sets  annual  target  for  the  flow  of credit to the agriculture sector and Banks have been consistently surpassing the annual target.  The  agriculture  credit  flow  target  has  been  set  at  Rs.  13.50  lakh  crore  for  the F.Y.2019-20 and Rs.15.00 lakh crore for F.Y. 2020-21 and against this Rs 13.92 lakh crore and Rs 15.58 lakh crore respectively has been disbursed. For F.Y. 2021-22, agriculture credit flow target has been set at Rs. 16.50 lakh crore.
- (4) Farmer Producer Organisation (FPOs): The Union Budget 2019-20, had announced formation of 10,000 new Farmer Producer Organisation (FPOs) to ensure economies of scale for  farmers  and  better  access  to  markets  for  better  realization  of  prices.    Pursuant  to  the budget announcement,  DA&FW  has  approved  a  new  Central  Sector  Scheme  titled 'Formation and Promotion of Farmer Produce Organizations (FPOs)' to form and promote 10,000 new FPOs with a total budgetary provision of Rs 4,496 crore for five years (2019-20 to 2023-24) with a further committed liability of Rs 2,369 crore for the period from 2024-25 to 2027-28 towards handholding of each FPO for five years from its aggregation and formation. About  6000  FPOs  are  already  existing  in  the  country  promoted  by  National  Bank  for Agriculture  and  Rural  Development (NABARD),  Small  Farmers  Agri.  Business  Consortium (SFAC),National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), etc. As per the new scheme 2365 FPO produce cluster have been allocated to Implementing Agencies(IAs)  for formation of FPOs in Financial Year 2020-21.
- (5) With a view to provide better insurance coverage to crops for risk mitigation, a crop insurance  scheme  namely Pradhan  Mantri  Fasal  Bima  Yojana  (PMFBY) was  launched from Kharif 2016 season. This scheme provides insurance cover for all stages of the crop cycle  including  post-harvest  risks  in  specified  instances,  with  low  premium  contribution  by farmers. For Kharif 2020, a total of 4.21 crore farmers have been insured over an area of 2.83 crore hectare and claim of Rs.5434 crore have been paid to 62.3 lakh farmers.
- (6) Further, under Interest Subvention Scheme 2018-19 , in order to provide relief to the farmers on occurrence of natural calamities, the interest subvention of 2% shall continue to be available to banks for the first  year on the restructured amount. In order to discourage distress sale by farmers and to encourage them to store their produce in warehouses against negotiable receipts, the benefit of interest subvention will be available to small and marginal farmers having Kisan Credit Card for a further period of upto six months of post harvest on the same rate as available to crop loan.

(7) Extending the reach of institutional credit to more and more farmers is priority area of the Government and to achieve this goal, the Government provides interest subvention of 2% on  short-term  crop  loans  up  to  Rs.3.00  lakh.  Presently,  loan  is  available  to  farmers  at  an interest rate of 4% per annum on prompt repayment.

(8) Government has launched an umbrella scheme of 'Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan' (PM-AASHA) for procurement of pulses and oilseeds on which MSP is announced.

(9) The Government has extended the facility of Kisan Credit Card (KCC) to the farmers practicing  animal  husbandry  and  fisheries  related  activities.  Processing  fee,  inspection, ledger folio charges and all other service charges for short term crop loans upto Rs.3.00 lakh have been waived off. Collateral free loan limit for short term agri credit has been raised from Rs.1.00 lakh to Rs.1.60 lakh.

(10) Provision of Rs. 1,00,000 crore for funding Agriculture Infrastructure Projects at farmgate & aggregation points.

(11) e-  National    Agricultural  Market  (e-NAM): In  order  to  provide  better  marketing facilities  for  farmers,  the  Government  is  implementing National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) scheme  for  transparent  price  discovery  for  remunerative  prices  for  the  farmers  for  their produce through competitive online bidding system. The farmers are taking advantage of emarket. As on 31 st  July 2021, about 1.71 crore farmers, 1.72 lakh traders and 1856 FPOs have been registered on e-NAM platform, and selling their produce through this platform. So far, 1000 wholesale regulated markets of 18 States and 03 UTs have been integrated with eNAM  platform. Under  the scheme,  apart from providing technical support, financial assistance upto Rs. 75 lakh per mandi is also provided to States/ UTs for electronic weighing scale, computer IT equipments, assaying equipments, cleaning/ sorting/ grading equipments and bio- composting unit.

(12) Creation of network of 725 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) by ICAR to facilitate farmers' access to  knowledge and information generated through research by ICAR Institutes and Agricultural Universities

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