Question : Increase in Farmers Income

(a) the present status of the Government’s plan to double farmers income within the country including the target set and achievements made so far;
(b) whether the Government has conducted any annual survey to measure farm and farmers income within the country recently, if so, the details thereof;
(c) if not, the reasons therefor along with the plans to double farmers incomes without measuring farm and farmer incomes;
(d) whether the Ministry has seen at least a 75% increase in farmers’ income in any part of the country since 2016;
(e) the percentage by which the COVID-19 pandemic has offset the increase in farmer’s income in the financial year 2020-21; and
(f) whether the decrease, if any, will adversely affect the Government’s target of doubling farmers’ income by 2022 as promised, if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
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(a): 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. After acceptance of the DFI Committee recommendations, the Government has constituted an ‘Empowered Body’ to review and monitor the progress.
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 PM-KISAN (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.
(b) to (f): The last Situation Assessment Survey was conducted by NSSO in 2012-13. During COVID-19 pandemic, the agriculture sector has functioned smoothly, Government of India has taken all necessary measures to ensure smooth operation of agriculture related activities. Farming and allied activities were exempted from the lockdown during COVID-19 period. As per the first Advance Estimate of National Income, agriculture and allied sectors registered a growth of 3.6% during 2020-21.