Lok Sabha Question No. 970 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-12-13
Subject: Suicide cases of Farmers
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Badruddin Ajmal, D.K. Suresh, Behanan Benny

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.970

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 13 TH  DECEMBER, 2022

## SUICIDE CASES OF FARMERS

970.   SHRI M. BADRUDDIN AJMAL: SHRI D.K. SURESH: SHRI BENNY BEHANAN:

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

- (a) whether the Government has taken note of the fact that suicide cases among farmers has increased by 10% as per data released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB);
- (b) if  so,  the  number  of  suicide  cases  of  agricultural  labourers,  farmers,  cultivators  and women farmers reported in the country during the last five years, State/UT-wise;
- (c) the steps taken/to be taken by the Government to stop such incidents;
- (d) whether  suicide  cases  of  farmers  are  increasing  due  to  financial  anxiety  and frustration because they fail to get required price of their products; and
- (e) if so, whether any scheme has been launched/is to be launched by the Government to help  these  farmers  financially  as  well  as  to  provide  them  assistance  emotionally  and sociologically?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ षि एवं ककसान कल्याण मंत्री (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

- (a) to (d): The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) under the Ministry of Home Affairs compiles and disseminates information on suicides in its publication titled 'Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India' (ADSI), available at https://ncrb.gov.in.
- (e):  Government  has  adopted  and  implemented  several  policies,  reforms,  developmental programmes and schemes for the welfare of farmers  by increasing their farm income and made them financially sound. Some of the important initiatives/ schemes/ programmes are as under:

## 1.  Unprecedented enhancement in budget allocation

In the year 2013-14, the Budget allocation for Ministry of Agriculture & FW was only Rs. 21,933.50 crore. This has increased by more than 5.65 times to Rs. 1,24,000 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 as of now.

## 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 enrolled and over 11.73 crore (Provisional) farmer  applicants  have  received  claims  of  over  Rs.  1,24,223  crore.  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

- Increased from Rs. 7.3 lakh crore in 2013-14 with a target to reach Rs. 18.5 lakh crore in 2022-23.
- 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.
- 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 -

- 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.
- MSP for Paddy (common) has increased to Rs. 2040 per quintal in 2022-23 from Rs. 1310 per quintal in 2013-14.
- 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

- 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  hectarearea  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.

- 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.
- 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 ha area.

## 7.  Per Drop More Crop

Per  Drop  More  Crop  (PDMC)  scheme  launched  during  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. An area of 69.55 lakh hectare has been covered under Micro irrigation through the PDMC scheme from the year 2015-16 to so far.

## 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 Rs10000 crore. Projects worth Rs 4710.96 crore covering 17.09 lakh hectares have been approved.

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

- a)  A  new  Central  Sector  Scheme  for  Formation  &  Promotion  of  new  10,000  FPOs launched by Hon'ble Prime Minister on 29th February, 2020 with budget outlay of Rs 6865 Crore till 2027-28.
- b)  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  Abhiyanto  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 crore, approved/ sanctioned for funding under NBHM during 2020-21 & 2021-22 till date.

## 11.   Agricultural Mechanization

-  Agricultural  mechanization  is  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  crore  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 number 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

Regulations  for  promotion  of  bio  stimulants  is  issued.  Nano  urea  is  included  under fertilizer control order.

## 13.   Setting up of E-National Agriculture Marketing (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

Since the inception of AIF in the year 2020, the scheme has sanctioned Rs.13,681 Crore worth agriculture infrastructure in the country for more than 18133 projects. With the support of the scheme, various agriculture infrastructure are created and some of the infrastructure  is  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 post-harvest 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 agri-horti commodities. First Kisan Rail was started in July 2020. Till 31st 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  has  been  finally  selected  by different by knowledge partners and agribusiness incubators of DA & FW and a total of Rs.  6317.91  lakhs  grants-in-aid  has  been  released  in  installments  out  of  Rs.  10932.24 lakhs  fund  sanctioned  for  funding  to  these  1055  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 previous year 2020-21, the Agri and allied export has increased from 41.86 billion USD in 2020-21 to 50.24 billion USD in 2021-22 i.e. an increase of 19.99%.

The export of Agri and allied commodities during in April-October, 2022 was 30.21 billion USD to 26.98 billion USD in the same period of 2021-22 i.e. an increase of 11%.

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