Question : Doubling of Farmers Income

(a) the present status of the Government’s plan to double farmers’ income by 2022 including details of 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, if so, the details thereof including the last survey of farmers’ income;

(c) whether the committee formed on doubling farmers income has submitted its report and if so, the details thereof;

(d) the steps taken/proposed to be taken by the Government to overcome the
challenges of low agricultural remuneration, impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on agriculture and rising prices of agricultural inputs including diesel which may hinder the Government’s plan to double farmers income; and

(e) the steps taken by the Government with regard to increasing the role of exports in doubling the farmers’ income?

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
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(a) to (c): 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 containing the strategy for doubling of farmers’ income recognising agriculture as value led enterprise and has identified 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. 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 etc. There have been several reforms to unleash the potential, e.g. Promotion of 10,000 FPOs along with necessary financial support under AtmaNirbhar Package (Agriculture)and Supplementary Income transfers under PM-KISAN; Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY); Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY); 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 to provide remunerative price to farmers; Har Med Par Ped; Bee-Keeping; Rashtriya Gokul Mission; Blue Revolution; Interest Subvention Scheme; Kisan Credit Card (KCC) that now offers production loan to even dairy & fishery farmers besides agricultural crops etc. A list of achievement is at Annexure.
The last available estimates on income of agricultural household are based on the Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households conducted by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) during 77th round (January – December 2019). As per the survey results, the average monthly income per agricultural household from all sources was estimated to be. Rs. 10218/-.
(d): Providing of PM-KISAN Scheme benefits under which Rs.6000 is provided to farmers in three equal instalments, free of cost food grains to farmers under PMGKY scheme, launch of Kisan Rath app, increase of procurement centres of paddy, direct marketing facility to Kisan, operationlisation of e-NAM mandis, launch of Kisan Rail/KisanUdaan etc.

(e): The Government has adopted several developmental programmes, schemes, reforms and policies that focus on higher incomes for the farmers in which enhancement of agri exports is one of the focused action. Agriculture exports help farmers to take advantage of wider international market which translates into increase income for the farmers. To harness export potential of Indian agriculture, the Government is implementing Agriculture Export Policy , 2018 which inter-alia envisages promotion of clusters of various agri commodities with potential for export.