Lok Sabha Question No. 1015 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-12-13
Subject: Doubling of Farmers' Income
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Rahul Kaswan, Dinesh Chandra Yadav, Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh, Santosh Kumar, Aparupa  Poddar

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1015

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 13 TH  DECEMBER, 2022

## DOUBLING OF FARMERS INCOME

1015.  SHRI RAHUL KASWAN:

SHRI RAJIV RANJAN SINGH ALIAS LALAN SINGH:

SHRIMATI APARUPA PODDAR:

SHRI SANTOSH KUMAR:

SHRI DINESH CHANDRA YADAV:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE क ृ षि एवं षकसान कल्याण मंत्री be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government had set a target for doubling of farmers' income by the year 2022 and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the  growth  in  the  average  annual  income of farmers during the last five  years, year-wise;
- (c) the mechanism, norms and parameters followed in collection and compilation of data for computing the farmers' income;
- (d) the  schemes/programmes  launched  and  various  other  measures  taken  to achieve the target of doubling the farmers' income along with the results thereof;
- (e) whether  the  target  has  been  achieved/is  likely  to  be  achieved  within  the  set timeline and if not, the reasons therefor; and
- (f)        the time by which, the farmers' income is likely to be doubled?

## ANSWER

THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

क ृ षि एवं षकसान कल्याण मंत्री

(SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

- (a) to (f): The  efforts  of  the  Government  to  double  the  income  of  farmers  have yielded  very  positive  results.    In  this  regard Government  had  constituted  an  InterMinisterial Committee in April, 2016 to examine issues relating to 'Doubling of Farmers Income  (DFI)'  and  recommended  strategies  to  achieve  the  same.    The  Committee submitted  its  final  report  in  14  volumes  to  the  Government  in  September,  2018

containing the strategy for doubling of farmers' income through various policies, reforms &  programmes.    To  achieve  the  objective,  the  Committee  identified  following  seven sources of income growth:-

- i. Increase in crop productivity
- ii. Increase in livestock productivity
- iii. Resource use efficiency - reduction in cost of production
- iv. Increase in  cropping intensity
- v. Diversification to high value agriculture
- vi. Remunerative prices on farmers' produce
- vii. Shift of surplus manpower from farm to non-farm occupations

The  premise  of  the  strategy  for  doubling  farmers  income  is  based  on  the  following primary principles:

- i. Increasing  total  output  across  the  agricultural  sub-sectors  through  realising higher productivity
- ii. Rationalizing/reducing the cost of production
- iii. Ensuring remunerative prices in the agricultural produce
- iv. Effective risk management
- v. Adoption of sustainable technologies

As  per  the  strategy,  Government  has  adopted  and  implemented  several  policies, reforms, developmental programmes and schemes for achieving higher incomes for the farmers directly or indirectly. These include:

## 1.  Unprecedented enhancement in budget allocation

In  the  year  2015-16,  the  Budget  allocation  for  Ministry  of  Agriculture  &  FW (including DARE, DAH&F) was only Rs. 25460.51 crore. This has increased by more than 5.44 times to Rs. 1,38,550.93 crore in 2022-23.

## 2.  Income support to farmers through PM KISAN

Launch of PM-KISAN in 2019 -an income support scheme providing Rs. 6000 per year in 3 equal installments. More than Rs . 2 lakh crore has been released so far to approximately 11.3 crore eligible farmer families.

## 3.  Pradhan Mantri Fasal BimaYojana (PMFBY)

Six year - PMFBY was launched in 2016 addressing problems of high premium rates for farmers and reduction in sum insured due to capping. In past 6 Years of implementation - 38 crore farmer applications has been enrolled and over 11.73 crore  (Provisional)  farmer  applicants  have  received  claims.  During  this  period nearly Rs. 25,185 crore were paid by farmers as their share of premium against which  claims  of  over  Rs.  1,24,223  crore  (Provisional)  have  been  paid  to  them.

Thus for every 100 rupees of premium paid by farmers, they have received about Rs. 493  as claims.

## 4.  Institutional credit for agriculture sector

- i. Increased from Rs. 8.5 lakh crore in 2015-16 with a target to reach Rs. 18.5 lakh crore in 2022-23.
- ii. Benefit of concessional institutional credit through KCC at 4% interest per annum has also now been extended to Animal Husbandry and Fisheries farmers for meeting their short-term working capital needs.
- iii. A  special  drive  has  been  undertaken  since  February  2020  to  provide concessional  institutional  credit  with  focus  on  covering  all  PM-KISAN beneficiaries through Kisan Credit Cards (KCC). As on 11.11.2022, 376.97 lakh new KCC applications have been sanctioned with a sanctioned credit limit of Rs. 4,33,426 crore as part of the drive.

## 5.  Fixing of Minimum Support Price (MSP) at one-and-a half times the cost of production -

- i. Government  has  increased  the  MSP  for  all  mandated  Kharif,  Rabi  and other commercial crops with a return of at least 50 per cent over all India weighted average cost of production from 2018-19.
- ii. MSP for Paddy (common) has increased to Rs. 2040 per quintal in 202223 from Rs. 1310 per quintal in 2013-14.
- iii. MSP for Wheat  increased  from  Rs.  1400  per  quintal  in  2013-14  to  Rs. 2125 per quintal in 2022-23.

## 6.  Promotion of organic farming in the country

- i. Paramparagat  Krishi  Vikas  Yojana  (PKVY)  was  initiated  in  2015-16  to promote organic farming in the country. 32384 clusters have been formed and an area of 6.53 lakh hectare has been covered benefitting 16.19 lakh farmers. In addition, Under Namami Gange Programme 123620 hectare area covered and under natural farming 4.09 lakh hectare area covered. Farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Jharkhand have takenup organic farming on either side of the river Ganga to control river water pollution as well as to fetch additional income to farmers.
- ii. Government  also proposes to promote sustainable natural farming systems  through  the  scheme  Bhartiya  Prakratik  Krishi  Padhati  (BPKP). The proposed scheme aims at cutting down cost of cultivation, enhancing farmer's  income  and  ensuring  resource  conservation  and,  safe  and healthy soils, environment and food.
- iii. Mission Organic Value Chain Development in North East Region (MOVCDNER)  has  been  launched.  379  Farmer  Producer  Companies have  been  formed  comprising  of  189039  farmers  and  covering  172966 hectare area.

## 7.  Per Drop More Crop

Per Drop More Crop (PDMC) scheme was launched in the year 2015-16 which aims  to  increase  water  use  efficiency,  reducing  cost  of  inputs  and  increasing productivity  at  the  farm  level  through  Micro  Irrigation  technologies  i.e.  drip  and sprinkler  irrigation  systems.  So  far,  an  area  of  69.55  lakh  hectare  has  been covered under Micro irrigation through the PDMC scheme from the year 2015-16.

## 8.  Micro Irrigation Fund

A Micro  Irrigation  Fund  of  initial  corpus  Rs 5000 crore has  been  created  with NABARD.  In the Budget Announcement for 2021-22, the corpus of the fund is to be  increased  to  Rs.10000  crores.  Projects  worth Rs 4710.96 crore covering 17.09 lakh hectares have been approved.

## 9.  Promotion of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs)

- i. To bring scales of economy to agricultural operations a new Central Sector Scheme for Formation & Promotion of new 10,000 FPOs was launched by Hon'ble  Prime  Minister  on 29 th   February,  2020 with  budget  outlay  of  Rs 6865 crore till 2027-28.
- ii. As on  31.10.2022, 3855 no. of FPOs have been registered under new FPO scheme.
10. A National Beekeeping and Honey Mission (NBHM) has been launched in 2020 as  part  of  the  Atma  Nirbhar  Bharat  Abhiyan  to  increase  productivity  of  crops through pollination  and  increase  in  honey  production  as  an  additional  source  of income. Rs. 500 crore for the period 2020-2021 to 2022-2023 has been allocated for beekeeping sector. 114  projects for  assistance of about Rs.  139.23  crores, approved/ sanctioned for funding under NBHM during 2020-21 & 2021-22 till date.

## 11.  Agricultural Mechanization

Agricultural  mechanization  is  an  extremely  vital  to  modernize  agriculture  and reduce  drudgery  of farming operations. During the period  from  2014-15 to March,  2022  an  amount  of  Rs.5490.82  crore  have  been  allocated  for agricultural  mechanization.  13,88,314  numbers  of  machines  and  equipments have been provided to farmers on subsidy basis.   18,824 custom hiring centers, 403 high-tech hubs and 16,791 farm machinery banks have been established to make available agricultural machines and equipments to the farmers on rental basis.  During  the  current  year  i.e.  2022-23,  so  far  an  amount  of  Rs.  504.43

crores  have  been  released  for  distribution  of  around  65302  machines  on subsidy, establishment of 2804 CHCs, 12 Hi-tech hubs and 1260 Village Level Farm Machinery Banks.

## 12.  Providing Soil Health Cards to farmers

Soil Health Card Scheme was introduced in the year 2014-15 to optimize usage of nutrients. The following numbers of cards have been issued to farmers;

- i. Cycle-I (2015 to 2017) - 10.74 crore
- ii. Cycle-II (2017 to 2019)- 11.97 crore
- iii. Model Village Programme (2019-20)- 19.64 lakh

## 13.  Setting up of National Agriculture Market ( e-NAM) extension Platform

- i. 1260  mandis  of  22  States  and  03  UTs  have  been  integrated  to  e-NAM platform.
- ii. As  on  31.10.2022,  more  than  1.74  crore  Farmers  &  2.36  Lakh  traders have been registered on e-NAM portal.
- iii. Total  volume  of  6.5  crore  MT  &  19.24  crore  numbers  (bamboo,  betel leaves, coconut, lemon & sweet corn) collectively worth approximately Rs. 2.22  lakh  crore  of  trade  has  been  recorded  on  e-NAM  platform  as  on 31.10.2022.
14.  Launch of the National Mission for Edible Oils - Oil Palm NMEO has been approved with a total outlay of Rs 11,040 crore. This  will bring an additional area of 6.5 lakh hectare under Oil Palm plantation with 3.28 lakh hectare in the northeastern states and 3.22 lakh hectare in the rest of India in the next 5 years. The major  focus  of  the  Mission  is  to  provide  Viability  Prices  of  fresh  fruit  bunches (FFBs) to the farmers linked with assured procurement by industry with a simpler price fixing formula. The Central Government will compensate farmers through a viability  gap  payment  if  price  paid  by  industry  is  below  the  viability  price  upto October, 2037.

## 15.  Agri Infrastructure Fund (AIF)

Since inception of AIF in the year 2020, the scheme has sanctioned an amount of  Rs.13681  crore  worth  agriculture  infrastructure  in  the  country  for  more  than 18133 projects. With the support of the scheme, various agriculture infrastructures were created and some of the infrastructure are at the final stage of  completion.  These  infrastructures  include  8076  warehouses,  2788  primary processing units, 1860 custom hiring centres, 937 sorting & grading units, 696 cold  store  projects,  163  assaying  units  and  around  3613  other  kinds  of  postharvest management projects and community farming assets.

## 16.  Improvement in farm produce logistics, Introduction of Kisan Rail.

Kisan Rail has been launched by Ministry of Railways to exclusively cater to movement of perishable agrihorti commodities. First Kisan Rail was started in July  2020.  Till  31 st   October,  2022,  2359  services  on  167  routes  have  been operated.

## 17.  MIDH - Cluster Development Programme:

The Cluster Development Programme (CDP) is designed to leverage geographical  specialisation  of  horticulture  clusters  and  promote  integrated  and market-led  development  of  pre-production,  production,  post-harvest,  logistics, branding, and marketing activities. DA&FW has identified 55 horticulture clusters, of which 12 have been selected for the pilot phase of the CDP.

## 18. Creation of a Start-up Eco system in agriculture and allied sector

So far, 1055 Startups during FY 2019-20 to 2022-23 have been finally selected by different knowledge partners and agribusiness incubators of DA&FW. A total of  Rs.  6317.91  lakhs  grants-in-aid  has  been  released  for  funding  to  these Startups  to  the  respective  Knowledge  Partners  (KPs)  &  RKVY  RAFTAAR  Agri Business Incubator (R-ABIs) as grants-in-aid support by DA&FW.

## 19. Achievement in Export of Agri and Allied Agri- Commodities

The  country  has  witnessed  emphatic  growth  in  export  of  agri  and  allied commodities. As compared to the year 2015-16, the Agri and allied export has increased from 32.81 billion USD in 2015-16 to 50.24 billion USD in 2021-22 i.e. an increase of 53.1%.

In  the  above  context,  it  is  stated  that  the  Ministry  of  Statistics  and  Programme Implementation  [National  Statistical  Office  (NSO)]  conducted  a  Situation  Assessment Survey  (SAS)  of  Agricultural  Households  during  NSS  70th  round  (January  2013December  2013)  with  reference  to  the  agricultural  year  July  2012-  June  2013  and during  NSS  77th  round  (January  2019-  December  2019)  with  reference  to  the agricultural  year  July  2018-  June  2019  in  the  rural  areas  of  the  country.   From  these surveys,  estimated  average  monthly  income  per  agricultural  household  as  obtained from  NSS  70th  round  (2012-13)  and  NSS  77th  round  (2018-19)  were  calculated  as Rs.6426/- and Rs.10,218/- respectively.

The efforts of Government at positive implementation of these schemes have yielded remarkable results towards augmenting the income of the farmers. As part of the 'Azadi ka  Amrit  Mahotsav',  Indian  Council  of  Agricultural  Research  (ICAR)  has  released  a book, which contains compilation of success  stories of 75,000  farmers out of innumerable successful farmers who have increased their income more than two times.

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