In a reply given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Parshottam Rupala in Rajya Sabha on the present income of the country’s farmers, it was evident that the NDA govt has done no such surveys on farmers’ income in its tenure so far.
What was available was a Survey report done in the year 2013 by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). The Minister said NSSO has not conducted any survey during the last one year and the Survey presented in Rajya Sabha refers to a Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of Agricultural households with reference to the agricultural year July 2012- June 2013.
The Minister also listed various initiatives taken by the govt to double income of the farmers including Soil Health Card scheme; Neem Coated Urea; Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana; National Agriculture Market scheme (e-NAM); Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), and many others.
The recently notified Minimum Support Price (MSP) for both Kharif & Rabi crops was also part of his speech but any comparison of farmers’ income with that of the year 2013 would not be fair and would fail to measure the real changes brought about by the NDA’s new initiatives, said experts.
The survey of 2013, though dated reveals that West Bengal has done the worst while Punjab stands at the top of the chart. It reveals that the average monthly income per agricultural household from the net receipt from cultivation is just Rs 979 for West Bengal while it is Rs 10862 for Punjab. Haryana comes next after Punjab with Rs 7867 per month.
The states doing reasonably well with an income hovering around Rs 5000 or more are Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Karnataka.
The states of Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar are poor performers. While the monthly income of a farmer of Odisha is just Rs 1407, it is Rs 1451 in the case of Jharkhand and Rs 1715 in the case of Bihar. These are much below the national average of Rs 3081.
It also raises questions as to how the govt would calculate if it succeeded in doubling farmers’ income when no survey has been conducted by the NDA govt so far.
The Minister said that the Government has constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee under the Chairmanship of Chief Executive Officer, National Rainfed Area Authority, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare to examine issues relating to doubling of farmers’ income and recommend a strategy to achieve doubling of farmers’ income in real terms by the year 2022.
Not only that, thirteen draft volumes of ‘Strategy for Doubling Farmers’ Income by 2022’ prepared by the Committee have been uploaded on the website of this Department.