Lok Sabha Question No. 307 (STARRED), answered on 2021-08-10
Subject: Committee on Doubling Farmers’ Income
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: S. Muniswamy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, COOPERATION & FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 307

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE  10 TH  AUGUST, 2021

## COMMITTEE ON DOUBLING FARMERS' INCOME

- *307.    SHRI S. MUNISWAMY:

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

- (a) whether the Committee on Doubling Farmers' Income which is also the implementing agency for its recommendations has come out with practical and noteworthy recommendations for doubling farmers' income;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether  the  Government  feels  that  the  Committee  on  Doubling  Farmers'  Income should  be  awarded  the  status  of  a  statutory  body  as  a  mark  of  recognition  for  the phenomenal work it  has  done  and  to  further  add  inputs  for  the  betterment  of  the  farming community at large; and
- (d) if so, the action taken thereon?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंी

(SHRI NARENDRA  SINGH TOMAR)

- (a) to (d): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (d)  OF  LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 307   DUE FOR REPLY ON 10 TH  AUGUST, 2021.

(a)  &  (b):     The  Government  constituted  an  Inter-ministerial  Committee  in  April,  2016  to examine  issues  relating  to  'Doubling  of  Farmers  Income'  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 by the year 2022. After acceptance of the DFI Committee recommendations, the Government has constituted an 'Empowered Body' to review and monitor the progress.

The Committee on Doubling Farmers' Income (DFI) recognizes agriculture as a value led enterprise and has indentified seven major sources of 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 from farm to non-farm occupations.

The Government has adopted several developmental programmes, schemes, reforms and policies that focus on higher incomes for the farmers. All these policies & programmes are being supported by higher budgetary allocations, non-budgetary financial resources by way of creating Corpus Funds like Micro Irrigation Fund, as also in the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal  Husbandry  and  Dairying  to  promote  dairy  and  fishery  sectors.  There  have  been several reforms to unleash the potential and these include 'The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Act, 2020'; 'The Farmers (Empowerment & Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act.  2020' and the schemes such as Promotion   of 10,000 FPOs with necessary financial support under Atma Nirbhar Package

(Agriculture).  Rs. One lakh crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) has been launched to provide medium to long term debt financing for investment in viable projects, Launch of PMKISAN (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) in 2019 -an income support scheme providing Rs.  6000  per  year  in  3  equal  instalments  etc.  In  the  Budget  Announcement  2021-22, allocation  to  Micro  Irrigation  Fund  has  been  doubled  to  Rs  10,000  crore  and  Institutional Credit has been increased to Rs 16.50 lakh crore. A list of programmes/achievements is at Annexure .

(c):    There is no need to constitute a statutory body as implementation is already monitored by Empowered Body.

(d): Does not arise.

## ACHIEVEMENTS

## 1.  Unprecedented enhancement in budget allocation

In the year 2013-14, the Budget allocation for Department of Agriculture was only Rs.  21933.50  crore.  This  has  been  increased  by  more  than  5.5  times  to  Rs. 1,23017.57 crore in 2021-22.

## 2.  Record food grains and horticulture production

Food grain production has increased from 265.05 million tonnes in 2013-14 to record 305.43 million tonnes in 2020-21 (Third advance estimate) which is the highest ever food grain production. Horticulture production has increased from 280.99  million  tonnes  in  2014-15  to  320.48  million  tonnes  in  2020-21  (2 nd advance Estimate) which is the highest ever for Indian horticulture.

## 3.  Fixing of 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.

● Government has recently announced MSPs for Kharif crops of year 202122 on 9 th June 2021. The highest absolute increase in MSP over the previous year has been fixed for sesamum (Rs. 452 per quintal) followed by tur and urad (Rs. 300 per quintal each).  In case of groundnut and nigerseed, there has been an  increase  of  Rs  275  per  quintal  and  Rs  235  per  quintal  respectively  in comparison to last year. MSP of paddy has been increased by Rs. 72 per quintal in  comparison  to  last  year.  The  expected  returns  to  farmers  over  their  cost  of production are estimated to be highest in case of bajra (85%) followed by urad (65%) and tur (62%). For rest of the crops, return to farmers over their cost of production is estimated to be at least 50%.

## 4.  Income support to farmers through PM KISAN (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi)

Launch of PM-KISAN in 2019 -an income support scheme providing Rs. 6000 per year in 3 equal instalments. A total of Rs. 1.39 lakh crore has been released so far to 11.05 crore farmer families.

## 5.  Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)

PMFBY was launched in 2016 addressing problems of high premium rates for farmers  and  reduction  in  sum  insured  due  to  capping.  In  past  4  years  of implementation - 23 crore farmer applicants enrolled   and over 7.7 crore farmer applicants  have  received  claims  of  over  Rs.  94,584  Crore.  During  this  period nearly ₹17,618 crore were paid by farmers as their share of premium. Thus, for every 100 rupees of premium paid by farmers, they have received Rs. 536 as claims.

## 6.  Institutional credit for agriculture sector

- Increased from Rs. 7.3 lakh crore in 2013-14 with a target to reach Rs. 16.5 lakh crore in 2021-22.
- 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 theirshort term working capital needs.
- A  special  drive  has  been  undertaken  since  February  2020  to  provide concessional credit to PM-KISAN beneficiaries through Kisan Credit Cards.  Till date  228  lakh  new  KCC  applications  have  been  sanctioned  with  a  sanctioned credit limit of Rs. 2,32,812 crore as part of the drive.

## 7.  Providing Soil Health Cards to farmers

Soil Health Card Scheme was introduced in the year 2014-15 to optimize usage of nutrients. Soil health cards have been issued free of cost to nearly 11.97 crore farmers under a nationwide program.

## 8.  Promotion of organic farming in the country

- Paramparagat  Krishi  Vikas  Yojana  (PKVY)  was  initiated  in  2015-16  to promote organic farming in the country. 30934 clusters have been formed and an area of 6.19 lakh ha has been covered benefitting 15.47 lakh farmers.
- Mission Organic Value Chain Development in North East Region (MOVCDNER) has been launched. 170 Farmer Producer Companies have been formed comprising of 138467 farmers and covering 130445 ha area.

## 9.  Neem Coating of Urea

Neem Coated Urea has been introduced since 2015-16 to ensure long availability of nutrients in the soil by slow release of nitrogen. It has also helped in curtailing diversion of urea for non- agricultural activities.

## 10.   Agri Infrastructure Fund (AIF)

Within a year of the launch of AIF, the scheme mobilized Rs.7700 Crore worth agriculture  infrastructure  in  the  country  for  more  than  7300projects.    With  the support of the scheme, various agriculture infrastructure was created and some of the infrastructure is at the final stage of completion. This infrastructure includes 3898 warehouses, 155 assaying units, 136 primary processing units, 135 sorting & grading units, 20 smart & precision agriculture projects and around 3000 other kind of post-harvest management projects and community farming assets.

## 11.    Promotion of FPOs

Scheme  for  Formation  and  Promotion  of  10,000  FPOs  launched  with  a  total budgetary  provision  of  Rs.  6865  Crore  in  February  2020.      So  far  713  FPOs already registered under New FPO scheme.

12. A National Bee and Honey Mission (NBHM) has been launched in 2020 as part of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. Rs.500 crore for the period 2020-2021 to 2022-2023 has been allocated for the sector.

## 13. Per  Drop  More  Crop  component  of  Pradhan  Mantri  Krishi  Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY-PDMC)

Per  Drop  More  Crop  component  of  Pradhanmantri  Krishi  Sinchai  Yojana (PMKSY\_PDMC) aims to increase water use efficiency at the farm level through Micro Irrigation technologies, i.e.,  drip and sprinkler irrigation systems.  Under the scheme an area of 20.39 lakh hectare has been covered and about 16 lakh farmers were benefited under micro-irrigation during 2019-20 & 2020 - 21. An amount of Rs. 5262.20 crore has been provided to states as central assistance under PMKSY-PDMC during 2019-20 and 2020-21.  For the year 2021-22, an amount of Rs. 4000.00 crore (B.E.) has been allocated for implementation of the scheme and an amount of Rs. 351.50 crore released to States so far.

## 14.    Micro Irrigation Fund

A Micro Irrigation Fund of Rs 5000 crore has been placed with NABARD.  In the Budget  for  2021-22  the  corpus  of  the  fund  has  been  increased  to  Rs.1000 crores. Projects worth Rs 3970.17 crore covering 12.83 lakh  hectares  have been approved.

## 15.    Agricultural Mechanization

Agricultural  mechanization  is  extremely  vital  to  modernize  agriculture  and reduce drudgery of farming operations. During the period from 2014-15 to July 2021  an  amount  of  Rs.5490.82  crore  have  been  allocated  for  agricultural mechanization.  13,24,124  numbers  of  machines  and  equipments  have  been provided to farmers on subsidy.   15,390 custom hiring centers, 362 high-tech hubs  and  14235  farm  machinery  banks  have  been  established  to  make available agricultural machines and equipments to the farmers on rental basis.

## 16. National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) scheme

- In  18 states  and 03 UTs, 1000 markets have been integrated with the eNAM Platform. Government has announced in the Budget 2021-22 to integrate another 1000 mandis with e-NAM.
- So  far,  more  than  1.71  crore  farmers  as  well  as  1.72  lakh  traders  are registered on the platform.  As on 27.07.2021, total volume of 4.55 crore metric tonnes  with  a  total  value  of  Rs.  1.40  lakh  crore  (as  on  27.07.2021)  trade  has been recorded.

## 17. Creation of a Start-up Eco system in agriculture and allied sector

646  start-ups  in  the  agriculture  and  allied  sectors  have  been  selected  (till  31 March 2021) for funding of a sum of Rs. 69.92 crore in instalments and Rs. 33.94 crore have been released  to respective KPs and RABIs for funding these startups.  These  start-ups  were  trained  for  two  months  at  various  agribusiness incubation centres i.e. Knowledge Partners (KPs) & RKVY-RAFTAAR (Rashtriya Krishi  Vikas  Yojana  -  Remunerative  Approaches  for  Agriculture  and  Allied Sectors Rejuvenation) Agribusiness Incubators (RABIs).

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