Lok Sabha Question No. 2702 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-08-02
Subject: Empowered Committee on Farmers Income
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: S. Venkatesan

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2702

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 2 ND  AUGUST, 2022

## EMPOWERED COMMITTEE ON FARMERS INCOME

2702.  SHRI S. VENKATESAN:

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

- (a) whether an Empowered body was set up on 23.01.2019 to monitor and review the  progress  of  'doubling  of  farmers  income'  and  the  said  committee  has identified seven sources of income growth;
- (b) if so, the number of times this Empowered body met after its formation;
- (c) whether any study has been made on the progress in seven sources of growth identified; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

कृ षि एवं ककसान कल्याण मंत्री

(SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

- (a) to (d): Government  had  constituted  an  Inter-Ministerial  Committee  in  April, 2016  to  examine  issues  relating  to  'Doubling  of  Farmers  Income  (DFI)'  and recommend strategies  to  achieve  the  same.    The  Committee  submitted  their  final report to the Government in September, 2018 containing the strategy for doubling of farmers'  income  through  various  policies,  reforms  &  programmes.  An  Empowered Body was subsequently set up to bring greater sharpness and speed of implementation  of  the  DFI  strategy.  The  DFI  strategy  recommends  recognition  of agriculture as a value-led enterprise, identifying 7 major sources of income growth viz.,
- (i) improvement in crop productivity;
- (ii) improvement in livestock productivity;
- (iii) resource use efficiency or savings in the cost of production;
- (iv) increase in the cropping intensity;
- (v) diversification towards high value crops;
- (vi) improvement in real prices received by farmers; and
- (vii) shift of surplus manpower from farm to non-farm occupations.

In line with the strategy of Government for increasing farmers' income, as suggested by the DFI Committee, several developmental programmes, schemes, reforms and policies  are  being  implemented  by  the  Government,  which  have  been  able  to augment income of farmers directly or indirectly. These include:

- (i)  Productivity  enhancement  across  cereals,  pulses  &  oilseeds  under  NFSM (National Food Security Mission),
- (ii)  Productivity  increase  and  area  coverage  across  horticulture  sector  under MIDH (Mission Integrated Development of Horticulture),
- (iii)  Focus  on  resource  use  efficiency  through  SHC,  Neem  coated  Urea,  Microirrigation  under  'Per  Drop  More  Crop'  component  of  PMKSY,  farm mechanisation under SMAM etc,
- (iv)  Better  access  to  irrigation  under  Pradhan  Mantri  Krishi  Sinchai  Yojana (PMKSY).  Area  under  irrigation  has  been  enhanced  through  AIBP  of Ministry of Jal Shakti,
- (v) Consistent  annual  increase  in  volume  of  credit  with  interest  subvention; increase  in  coverage  of  farmers  under  Kisan  Credit  Cards  (KCC)  and offering production loan to even dairy & fishery farmers besides agricultural crops,
- (vi)  Crop insurance under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna  (PMFBY),
- (vii) Increase  in  Minimum  Support  Price  (MSPs)  for  all  Kharif  &  Rabi  crops ensuring  a  minimum  of  50  percent  of  profit  margin  on  the  cost  of production,
- (viii) New  procurement  policy  by  adopting  PM-AASHA,  under  which  robust procurement  of  pulses  &  oilseeds  has  been  enabled.  This  initiative supplements FCI operation for procurement of paddy, wheat & millets,
- (ix)  Integration  of  APMCs  with  eNAM  to  create  a  more  efficient  marketing environment,
- (x) Formation  and  promotion  of  10,000  FPOs,  to  bring  economies  of  scale  to agricultural operations,
- (xi)  Promotion  of  digital  technology  including  adoption  of  drone  technologies  in agriculture which has a potential to revolutionize the Indian agriculture,
- (xii) National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), which aims to evolve and implement strategies to make Indian agriculture more resilient to the changing climate,
- (xiii) Promotion  of  Bee-Keeping,  Rashtriya  Gokul  Mission,  Blue  Revolution, Agro-forestry,  Restructured  National  Bamboo  Mission,  implementation  of New Generation Watershed Guidelines, etc,
- (xiv) Supplementary income transfers under PM-KISAN,
- (xv) Special  attention  to  creation  of  infrastructure  through  Agri  Infrastructure Fund (AIF) with a size of Rs. 100,000 crore.

The progress on the implementation of the strategy is reviewed from time to time at different levels.

It  is  further  stated  that  the  Ministry  of  Statistics  and  Programme  Implementation [National  Statistical  Office  (NSO)]  had  conducted  a  Situation  Assessment  Survey (SAS) of Agricultural Households during NSS 70 th  round (January 2013- December 2013) with reference to the agricultural year July 2012- June 2013 and during NSS 77 th   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.

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