Progress in Doubling Farmer Income

The strategy adopted by the Government for increasing the income is (i) higher volume of output through higher productivity (ii) lower cost of production and (iii) higher real remunerative returns on the farmers’ produce.

In case of production the farmers have been registering higher productivity across all segments of Agriculture. There has been record growth in total output of food grains, oilseeds, horticulture, milk and so on. The annual production under various sectors has increased appreciably as seen at the end of the year 2020-21. These include a food grains output of 303.34 MTs as against 252.23 MTs(2015-16); 326.58 MTs of fruits & vegetables as against 259.3 MTs (2015-16); 208 MTs of milk as against 155.49 MTs (2015-16).

Major emphasis has been on post-harvest management, which is  helping  farmers in getting better returns on their produce. These include e-NAM, new state marketing Act, direct trade, contract farming, FPOs, agri-logistics, food processing and so on besides healthier procurement operations.

Government’s emphasis on robust procurement of agricultural produce has also ensured better returns to farmers and served as an incentive. In addition to increases in procurement of paddy & wheat through FCI, the quantum of procurement of pulses & oilseeds has leap frogged since 2014-15. Under the new procurement scheme called PM-AASHA, NAFED has been procuring much more than before.

As of now, there is no latest estimate of annual income of farmers achieved and the percentage annual increase vis-a-vis the base year 2015-16. For the purpose of arriving at the average annual income for the year 2015-16, the DFI Committee extrapolated the NSSO survey based income estimates for the year 2012-13, and estimated that average farmers income stands at Rs. 96,703/- per year for the year 2015-16 at 2015-16 prices.

PM-KISAN is an ongoing and continuous Scheme. The entire responsibility of identification of beneficiaries rests with the State / UT Governments. An exclusive web-portal www.pmkisan.gov.in has been launched for the Scheme. The financial benefits are released to the beneficiaries on the basis of the data of farmers prepared and uploaded by them on the PM-KISAN web-portal. The data uploaded by the State/UT Governments undergoes three levels of validation. Data that passes all three levels of validation is then processed for the release of benefits. Any data that is found incorrect is sent back to the respective States/UTs for correction.

Budgetary allocations are made at the beginning of financial year based on the anticipated expenditure to be incurred in the financial year, however, any additional requirement of funds based on the actual expenditure is fulfilled by the Government by way of supplementary grants.

The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme is being implemented with a view to provide income support to all landholding farmer families across the country, to enable them to take care of expenses related to agriculture and allied activities as well as domestic needs.  The Scheme, effective from 1.12.2018, aims to provide a payment of Rs.6000/- per year for the farmers’ families with cultivable land holding, subject to certain exclusions.  The financial benefit of Rs.6000/- is being released by the Central Government in three 4-monthly instalments of Rs.2000/- over the year directly into the bank accounts of the eligible farmers under Direct Benefit Transfer mode. Any additional requirement of funds will be fulfilled by Government by way of supplementary grants. Central Government has been requesting State Governments from time to time so that all eligible farmers are covered under PM-KISSAN Scheme.

This information was given in a written reply by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.