INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Prime Minister Modi, addressing a Kisan rally in 2016, had shared his vision of doubling farmers' incomeNew Delhi: Amid slow pace of
economic growth, it might be a challenging task for the government to achieve the target of doubling farmers' income in the next three
years, but the government says it is moving in the right direction to achieve the goal within the time-frame.Union Minister for Agriculture
and Farmers' Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar while speaking in the Lok Sabha on Thursday claimed to have a roadmap for doubling the farmers'
Describing the data of agricultural production, he said production of foodgrains rose at 8.40 per cent annually during 2014-19, during the
discussion on 'Crop loss and its impact on farmers.'Earlier this week in the same House, replying to a question, Tomar's deputy, Minister of
State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhary said his government is committed to doubling the farmers' income within the timeframe
He said the Modi government in its first tenure had nearly doubled the agriculture budget compared to the previous UPA regime.The
agriculture budget during the UPA tenure from 2009-2014 was Rs 1.21 lakh crore whereas the Modi government increased it to Rs 2.11 lakh
crore during its first tenure, said Choudhary.Prime Minister Narendra Modi had shared his vision of doubling farmers' income for the first
time while addressing a Kisan Rally at Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh on February 28, 2016
Since then, the Central government has been giving more thrust to the growth of agriculture and allied sectors.Into its second term, the
Modi govt has removed the two-hectare ceiling for providing Rs 6,000 annually to farmers under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi in its first Cabinet
decision aimed at doubling the farmers' income by 2022.In its first tenure, the government constituted a committee under Ashok Dalwai, then
Additional Secretary in Agriculture Ministry, to prepare a report to achieve the goal.IANS spoke to Ashok Dalwai, now Chief Executive
Officer, National Rainfed Area Authority (NRRA), to know the progress made in achieving the goal of doubling the farmers' income at a time
when the growth rate of agriculture and the allied sectors is not encouraging.Dalwai said, farm income growth rate is different from
agriculture growth rate.He said, "Farm income growth could be higher than the agriculture growth when we help the farmers to reduce his cost
of production and facilitate better prices of his produce."When asked about the growth rate of farm income achieved so far in the past three
years since 2016, he said, "We will get the figures when the next National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) will publish its data, which is
usually done in a gap of five years
The NSSO has already started working in this direction."While the government is working on methods to raise productivity and reduce the cost
of production, it aims to ensure that farmers get the remunerative prices of their produce, said Dalwai
The government is focusing more on marketing -- the MSP for crops has been increased and procurement of crops is being done at a large
scale, besides, eNAM (Electronic-National Agriculture Market) has been strengthened
Gramin Agriculture Markets, too, will be set up so that farmers get better returns, he added.In the Dalwai Committee report, the average
farmer household's income has been targeted to rise from Rs 96,703 in 2015-16 (current prices) to Rs 2,42,998 in 2022-23, clocking an
increase of two-and-a-half times
The corresponding values for farm income are Rs 58,246 and Rs 1,63,456 respectively in the report.This implies that farm income in total
household income would increase from 60.2 per cent in 2015-16 to 70 per cent in 2022-23 with variations across states
In real terms, the income from farming would also double by 2022-23, rising at constant prices from Rs 58,246 to Rs 1,16,165 over the
period, said the Dalwai committee report.The report also suggests that for doubling the farmers' income by 2022, non-farm activities, too,
have to register an equal growth rate of 10.4 per cent per annum.(This story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is
auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
