MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
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(a) to (f): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (f) OF THE LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO 31 DUE FOR ANSWER ON 19.07.2022.
(a) to (d): Government had constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee in April, 2016 to examine issues relating to “Doubling of Farmers Income (DFI)” 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 through various policies, reforms & programmes.
In the above connection it is stated that the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation [National Statistical Office (NSO)] conducted a Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of Agricultural Households during NSS 70th round (January 2013- December 2013) with reference to the agricultural year July 2012- June 2013 and during NSS 77th round (January 2019- December 2019) with reference to the agricultural year July 2018- June 2019 in the rural areas of the country. From these surveys, estimated average monthly income per agricultural household as obtained from NSS 70th round (2012-13) and NSS 77th round (2018-19) were calculated as Rs.6426/- and Rs.10,218/- respectively.
Government has adopted several developmental programmes, schemes, reforms and policies for achieving higher incomes for the farmers. There have been several reforms to tap the potential for income enhancement which have been able to augment of income of farmers directly or indirectly. These include:
(i) Formation and promotion of 10,000 FPOs along with necessary financial support under Atma Nirbhar Package (Agriculture),
(ii) Special attention for creation of infrastructure through Agri Infrastructure Fund (AIF) with a size of Rs. 100,000 crore,
(iii) Supplementary income transfers under PM-KISAN,
(iv) Crop insurance under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY),
(v) Better access to irrigation under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY),
(vi) Increase in Minimum Support Price (MSPs) for all Kharif & Rabi crops ensuring a minimum of 50 percent of profit margin on the cost of production,
(vii) New procurement policy under PM-AASHA in addition to FCI operations,
(viii) Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) offering production loan to even dairy & fishery farmers besides agricultural crops,
(ix) National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), which aims to evolve and implement strategies to make Indian agriculture more resilient to the changing climate.
(x) Focus on application of digital technology at all stages of agricultural value chain.
(xi) Adoption of drone technologies in agriculture which has a potential to revolutionize the Indian agriculture.
(xii) Benefits accruing under Bee-Keeping, Rashtriya Gokul Mission, Blue Revolution, Interest Subvention Scheme, agro-forestry, restructured bamboo mission, implementation of new generation watershed guidelines, etc
The efforts of Government for positive implementation of these schemes are yielding huge results and the income of the farmers is continuously improving. It has been seen that it has more than doubled. 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.
(e) & (f): There is already a mechanism to fix Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for 22 mandated agricultural crops and Fair & Remunerative Price (FRP) for sugarcane on the basis of recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP) after considering the views of State Governments and the concerned Central Ministries/Departments and other relevant factors. 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 had assured formation of a Committee to make MSP more effective and transparent, to promote natural farming and to change crop pattern keeping in mind the changing needs of the country. Accordingly, a Committee has been constituted consisting of representatives of farmers, Central Government, State Governments, agricultural economists etc.
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