Lok Sabha Question No. 875 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-02-07
Subject: Inter-Ministerial Committee on Doubling of Farmers' Income
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Hema Malini

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 875 TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 7 TH  FEBRUARY, 2023

## INTER-MINISTERIAL COMMITTEE ON DOUBLING OF FARMERS' INCOME

## 875. SHRIMATI HEMA MALINI:

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

(a) whether the Government has constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee in 2016 to achieve the target of doubling farmers' income, which has recommended several strategies to achieve the same;

- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the Government's efforts to double farmers' income have yielded positive results; and
- (d) 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 double the income of farmers have yielded very positive results.  In this regard Government had constituted an Inter-Ministerial 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 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

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 2013-14 the budget allocation of Ministry of Agriculture (including DARE) and Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying was only 30223.88 crore. This has increased by more than 4.59 time to Rs. 138920.93 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 . 2.24 lakh crore has been released so far to more than 11 crore farmers 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  has  been  enrolled  and  over  12.37 crore (Provisional) farmer applicants have received claims. During this period nearly Rs. 25,252 crore were paid by farmers as their share of premium against which claims of over Rs. 1,30,015 crore (Provisional) have been paid to them. Thus for every 100 rupees of premium paid by farmers, they have received about Rs. 514  as claims.

## 4.  Institutional credit for agriculture sector

- i. Increased from Rs. 7.3 lakh crore in 2013-14 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 23.12.2022, 387.87 lakh new KCC applications have been sanctioned with a sanctioned credit limit of Rs. 4,49,443 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. A new Central Sector Scheme for Formation & Promotion of new 10,000 FPOs 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, 4028 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.
- iv. As on 12.12.2022, Credit Guarantee Cover worth Rs. 78 Cr. Issued to 447 FPOs.
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)- 12.19 crore
- iii. Model Village Programme (2019-20)- 23.71 lakh
- iv. In the year 2020-21- 11.52 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 29.11.2022, more than 1.74 Crore Farmers & 2.37 Lakh traders have been registered on e-NAM portal.
- iii. Total volume of 6.8 Crore MT & 20.05 Crore numbers (bamboo, betel leaves, coconut, lemon & sweet corn) collectively worth approximately Rs. 2.33 lakh crore of trade has been recorded on e-NAM platform as on 29.11.2022.
- iv. As on 01.12.2022, 203 Agriculture and allied products Tradable Parameter have been formulated for Assaying on e-NAM platform
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.

## 15.  Agri Infrastructure Fund (AIF)

Since inception of AIF in the year 2020, the scheme has sanctioned an amount of Rs.14170 crore worth agriculture infrastructure in the country for 19191 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  8215  warehouses,  3076  primary  processing  units,  2123  custom  hiring centres, 992 sorting & grading units, 728 cold store projects, 163 assaying units and around  3632  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 agrihorti commodities. First Kisan Rail was started in July 2020. Till 31 st  December, 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, 1102 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. 66.83 crore  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 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  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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