(a) the steps taken so far by the Government to double the income of farmers by 2022;
(b) whether the Government has any proposal to impart any training for improved agriculture with the purpose to double the income of farmers; and
(c) the expenditure incurred by the Government on the symposia, conferences, awareness campaigns, advertisements, etc. aimed at achieving the target of doubling the income of farmers by 2022 and the findings thereof?
MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
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(a): Agriculture being a State subject, the State Governments undertake implementation of programmes /schemes for the development of the sector. Government of India supplements the efforts of the State Governments through various schemes/ programmes. These schemes/ programmes of the Government of India are meant for the welfare of farmers by increasing production, remunerative returns and income support to farmers. A list of initiatives taken by the Government are at Annexure. All these steps of the Government of India are for the welfare of the farmers of the country.
Further, 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 Report to the Government in September, 2018 and thereafter, an Empowered Body was set up on 23.01.2019 to monitor and review the progress as per these recommendations. To achieve this, the Committee has identified seven sources of income growth viz., improvement in crop productivity; improvement in livestock productivity; resource use efficiency or savings in the cost of production; increase in the cropping intensity; diversification towards high value crops; improvement in real prices received by farmers; and shift from farm to non-farm occupations.
(b): The Government is implementing schemes for imparting various training programmes and awareness campaigns for the benefit of farmers at Panchayat and village level under Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) Scheme, Four Farm Machinery Training & Testing Institutes (FMTTIs), Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), National Food Security Mission (NFSM) etc. through its wide network of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and agriculture Universities etc.
(c): Awareness campaigns, advertisements etc are organised in print and electronic media to raise awareness among the farmers about the various initiatives taken by the Govt. of India for their welfare, on which an amount of Rs 218.55 crore and Rs 148.22 crore (till date) has been spent during the year 2018-19 and 2019-20 respectively.