Lok Sabha Question No. 2280 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-03-14
Subject: NCRB Report on Farmers' Suicides
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Kalyan Banerjee

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2280

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE14 TH  MARCH, 2023

## NCRB REPORT ON FARMERS' SUICIDES

2280.  SHRI KALYAN BANERJEE:

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

- (a) whether as per the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the overall farmers' suicides in the country among persons involved in farming operations increased from 10,677 in 2020 to 10,881 in 2021,accounting for 6.6% out of total 1,64,033 suicides in the country;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons behind this as the farm sector has shown positive growth during the COVID year; and
- (c) the action plan of the Government to stop farm deaths in the country?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) to (c): 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).  NCRB  has  published  reports  upto  2021  on  its  website (https://ncrb.gov.in).As  per  the  ADSI  reports  2020  and  2021  the  number  of  farmers  who committed suicide are as under:

|   Year |   No. of farmers committed suicide |
|--------|------------------------------------|
|   2020 |                               5579 |
|   2021 |                               5318 |

In the ADSI Reports 2020 and 2021, separate reasons for farmers' suicide have not been given.

Agriculture is a State Subject. However, Government of India supplements the efforts of States through appropriate policy measures and budgetary support and various schemes/ programmes. The various schemes/ programmes of the Government of India for the welfare of farmers are as under:

## 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 4.35 times to Rs. 1,31,612.41 crore in 2023-24.

## 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 Bima Yojana (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 37.66 crore farmer applications have been enrolled and over 12.38 crore (Provisional) farmer applicants have received claims. During this period nearly Rs. 25,174 crore were paid by farmers  as  their  share  of  premium  against  which  claims  of  over  Rs.  1,30,185  crore (Provisional) have been paid to them. Thus for every 100 rupees of premium paid by farmers, they have received about Rs. 517 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 30.12.2022, 389.33 lakh new KCC applications have been sanctioned with a sanctioned credit limit of Rs. 4,51,672 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. 32,384 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 1.23 lakh 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 1,89,039 farmers and covering 1,72,966 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 72 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 5,000 crore has been created with NABARD.  In the Budget Announcement for 2021-22, the corpus of the fund is to be increased to Rs.10,000 crore. Projects worth Rs 4,710.96 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. 65.33 Crore has been released to 1,730 FPOs as on 31.12.2022.
- iv. As  on  31.12.2022,  Credit  Guarantee  Cover  worth  Rs.  101.78  crore  issued  to  583 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 crore, approved/ sanctioned for funding under NBHM during 2020-21, 202122 & 2022-23 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.5,490.82 crore have been allocated for agricultural mechanization. 13,88,314numbers 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. 585.50 crore have been released for distribution of around 75,391 machines on subsidy, establishment of 3,468 CHCs, 64 Hi-tech hubs and 2281 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 31.12.2022, more than 1.74 Crore Farmers & 2.39 Lakh traders have been registered on e-NAM portal.
- iii. Total volume of 7.07 Crore MT & 20.88 Crore numbers (bamboo, betel leaves, coconut, lemon & sweet corn) collectively worth approximately Rs. 2.42 lakh crore of trade has been recorded on e-NAM platform as on 31.12.2022.

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.

## 15. Agri Infrastructure Fund (AIF)

Since inception of AIF in the year 2020, the scheme has sanctioned an amount of Rs.16,117 crore worth agriculture infrastructure in the country for 22,354 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 8,752 warehouses, 4,188 primary processing units, 2,635 custom hiring centres, 1,217 sorting & grading units, 859 cold store projects, 163 assaying units and around 4,257 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 grantsin-aidhas 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%.

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