Farmers income: The average income of farmer families in India in the agricultural year 2018-19 (July-June) was just Rs 10,218 per month. Even though it was 60 per cent higher than in 2012-13, the government’s findings (covered in the most recent Situation Assessment Survey or SAS) indicate a growing income crisis for India’s farmers during these six years. Farmers are now earning more from wages than farming, indicating that farming is now less attractive. In 2018-19, almost every second farmer family was in debt, but now the debt burden has increased significantly. At the same time, a large part of the farmers in India have very little land. According to AY 2018-19, only 0.2 per cent of the farmer households own more than 10 hectares of land.
In such a situation, is the work still going on in 2016 on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to double farmers’ income by 2022? There is no data on the average income of farmer families after AY 2018-19.
Finance Minister made many announcements last year
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the MSP regime in the Union Budget, 2021-22 to ensure 1.5 times the cost of all commodities. Due to this the payment to the farmers increased significantly. In addition, the allocation for Rural Infrastructure Development Fund was increased from Rs 30,000 crore to Rs 40,000 crore. Micro Irrigation Fund was doubled to Rs 10,000 crore.
Need for 10.4% CAGR growth in farmers’ income
Dhiresh, co-founder of agritech startup Neem Tree Agro Solutions, says that in 2016 the Ashok Dalwai Committee had said that achieving the target of doubling farmers’ income by 2022 would require a CAGR growth of 10.4 per cent. He said, “As per the latest agriculture census of the National Sample Survey Office, the average CAGR for farmers with an area of 0.01-1 hectare was 9.6 per cent. And this is very close to the required growth rate of 10.4 per cent.”
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Agri Expert- Income is less than minimum wage
Agri expert Devendra Sharma says that even though no one had any idea about the average income of Indian farmers in 2016, it has been announced to double the income of farmers by 2022. According to him, the Economic Survey for that year mentioned that the average annual income of farmers in 17 states (about half the country) was Rs 20,000. “It means it was less than Rs 1,700 a month,” says Sharma. It is not enough to feed a cow, so how will a farmer’s family survive on it?” According to the SAS of 2018-19, the income from agriculture plus non-farm activities is around Rs 10,218 per month. This includes income from non-farm activities, says Sharma, and is still less than what a peon earns. He said that the income from agriculture alone is Rs 27 per day, which is much less than the minimum wage.
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