Lok Sabha Question No. 1094 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-12-13
Subject: Income of Farmers
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Shiromani Ram

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1094

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 13 TH  DECEMBER, 2022

## INCOME OF FARMERS

1094 SHRI RAMSHIROMANI VERMA:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ िष एवं कसान कयाण मंी be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government is aware of the plight of farmers in the country;
- (b) if so, the measures taken by the Government to increase their income;
- (c) whether the Government has set any target for doubling the income of farmers and if so, the details thereof;
- (d)  the  measures  being  taken  by  the  Government  in  this  regard  along  with  the progress made so far in this direction;
- (e)  whether  the  Government  proposes  to  provide  the  amount  of  Rs.  3000/-  to  all agricultural land holders under a Contributory Pension Scheme; and
- (f) whether the growth rate of agriculture sector is less than the growth rate of the economy of the country and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ िष एवं कसान कयाण मंी (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

(a) to (d): The efforts of the Government to increase 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  recommend  strategies  to  achieve  the  same.    The Committee  submitted  its  final  report  to  the  Government  in  September,  2018 containing  the  strategy  for  doubling  of  farmers'  income  through  various  policies, reforms & programmes. In line with the strategy, Government has adopted/implemented  several  developmental  programmes,  schemes,  reforms  and policies for achieving higher incomes for the farmers. 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 2022-23 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  taken-up  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  30.11.2022, 4029 no. of FPOs have been registered under new FPO scheme.
- iii. Equity Grant of Rs. 53.4 crore has been released to 1415 FPOs as on 30.11.2022
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 north-eastern 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)

Special  attention  is  on  creation  of  agricultural  infrastructure  through  Agri Infrastructure Fund (AIF) with a size of Rs. 100,000 crores. 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%.

(e) : Government has implemented the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maan-dhan Yojana, a  pension  scheme  for  all  land  holding  Small  and  Marginal  Farmers  (SMF)  in  the country, subject to certain exclusion clauses. The scheme provides for payment of a minimum  fixed  pension  of  Rs.3,000/-  per  month  to  the  enrolled    farmers  on  their attaining the age of 60 years. The scheme requires monthly contribution by eligible farmers  in  the  age  group  of  18-40  years,  with  a  matching  contribution  by  the Government of India. As on 30.11.2022, a total number of 23,26,116 farmers have been enrolled under the scheme across the country.

(f): The state of economy of the country is a result of the combined performance of  various  sectors  of  the  economy.  As  per  the  Economic  Survey,  2021-22,  the agriculture sector has experienced buoyant growth in the past two years. The sector, which is the largest employer of workforce, accounted for a sizeable 18.8 per cent (2021- 22) in Gross Value Added (GVA) of the country registering a growth of 3.6 per cent  in  2020-21  and  3.9  per  cent  in  2021-22.  Growth  in  allied  sectors  including livestock, dairying and fisheries has been the major drivers of overall growth in the sector.  The  allied  sectors  including  animal  husbandry,  dairying  and  fishing  are steadily  emerging  to  be  high  growth  sectors.  The  livestock  sector  has  grown  at  a CAGR of 8.15 per cent over the last five years ending 2019-20. India's real GDP is projected to grow at 9 per cent in both 2021-22 and 2022-23 and at 7.1 per cent in 2023-24. This projects India as the fastest growing major economy in the world in all these three years.

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