B. Based on Low Income
7.0 Initiatives by the States
7.1 Some of the State Governments have also brought innovations to drought proof their regions. Andhra Pradesh launched the Neeru Meeru Water Conservation Programme, Madhya Pradesh had the Ek Panch Ek Talab (one panchayat, one tank) programme and Gujarat the Sardar Patel Participatory Water Conservation programme to build thousands of check dams to harness rainwater. Tamil Nadu took the Rainwater Harvesting Campaign to practically every house in Chennai. Maharashtra state has had a number of remarkable stories like Ralegan Siddhi, Hiware Bazaar, Soppecom‟s work on water users associations in Waghad and Palkhed, work of Paani Panchayat, Afarm, etc.,
7.2. Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) is a unique method of farming which requires absolutely no monetary investment for purchase of key inputs like seeds, fertilizers and plant protection chemicals from the market. The farmer can grow hardy local varieties of crops without application of fertilizers and pesticides. Since it is a zero budget farming no institutional credit would be required and dependence on hired labour is also reduced to bare minimum. All that the system requires is native breed of cattle which is any case forms an integral part of farming families in rural areas. It is claimed that one cow is sufficient to take up this method of farming on thirty acres of land.
In some States, ZBNF has been adopted in drought prone villages with the help of NGOs etc. It is being contemplated that adoption of this technique may benefit in mitigating the crippling effects of drought.
7.3 There are similar community level initiatives in other states, which need to be identified and up scaled for greater benefit of our farmers.
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Table 1: Districts in which Drought was declared more than 10 times, During 2000-2015
Sr. No. State Districts
1 Andhra Pradesh 1. Ananthapur
2. Chittoor 3. Kurnool 4. Prakasam
2 Karnataka 1. Bagalkot
2. Bangalore Rural 3. Belgaum
4. Bellary 5. Bidar 6. Bijapur 7. Davanagere 8. Gadag 9. Gulbarga 10. Hassan 11. Kolar 12. Koppal 13. Mandhya 14. Mysore 15. Chitradurga 16. Tumkur
3 Rajasthan 1. Ajmer
2. Churu 3. Jaisalmer 4. Nagaur
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Table 2: Double stressed districts in terms of climate vulnerability and low farm income
S.No State District
1 Bihar Madhubani
2 Bihar Ararai
3 Bihar Bhagalpur
4 Bihar Gopalgunj
5 Bihar Saran
6 Bihar Saharsa
7 Bihar Siwan
8 Chhattisgarh Bijapur
9 Gujarat Surendranagar
10 Himachal Preadesh Hamirpur
11 Jharkhand Goda
12 Jharkhand Sahibgunj
13 Madhya Pradesh Ratlam
14 Madhya Pradesh Mandla
15 Maharashtra Jalna
16 Maharashtra Aurangabad
17 Rajasthan Nagaur
18 Rajasthan Jaisalmer
19 Rajasthan Pali
20 Rajasthan Udaipur
21 Rajasthan Dungarpur
22 Rajasthan Banswara
23 Tamilnadu Ramanathapuram
24 Uttar Pradesh Banda
25 Uttar Pradesh Deora
26 Uttar Pradesh Ballia
27 Uttar Pradesh Chamoli
28 Uttarakhand Bhageshwar
29 Uttarakhand Almora
*****
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TOPIC – VIII: DOUBLING FARMERS INCOME
1. Background:
1.1 The Hon‟ble Prime Minister has set a target before all of us to double the farmers‟ income by 2022. He has said that “I have laid this out as a challenge. But it is not merely a challenge. With good strategy, a well- designed programme, adequate resources and good governance in implementation, this target is achievable”. In order to achieve this target he has also advocated a seven point strategy. These are:
i. Special focus on irrigation with sufficient budget, with the aim of “(Per Drop More Crop)”;
ii. Provision of quality seeds and nutrients based on soil health of each field;
iii. Large investments in warehousing and cold chains to prevent post- harvest crop losses;
iv. Promotion of value addition through food processing;
v. Creation of a national farm market, removing distortions and e-platform across 585 stations;
vi. Introduction of a new crop insurance scheme to mitigate risks at affordable cost; and
vii. Promotion of ancillary activities like poultry, beekeeping and fisheries.
1.2 Hon‟ble Finance Minister in his budget speech for 2016-17, has stated that “we are grateful to our farmers for being the backbone of the country‟s food security. We need to think beyond food security and give back to our farmers a sense of income security. Government will, therefore, reorient its interventions in the farm and non-farm sectors to double the income of the farmers by 2022”. During the Budget speech for 2017-18, the Hon‟ble Finance Minister has stated that “I focused on „income security‟ of farmers to double their income in 5 years. I had also announced a number of measures. We have to take more steps and enable the farmers to increase their production and productivity; and to deal with post-harvest challenges”.
1.3 The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW) has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Additional Secretary (Policy), now Chief Executive Officer (CEO), National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA) with members from all related departments and NITI Aayog to examine issues relating to doubling of farmers‟ income by year 2021-22. As of now, six meetings of the committee have been held. The mandate of the committee would be as follows:
i. To study the current income level of farmers/ agricultural labourers;
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ii. To measure the historical growth rate of the current income level;
iii. To determine the needed growth rate to double the income of farmers/agricultural labourers by the year 2021-22;
iv. To consider and recommend various strategies to be adopted to accomplish point (iii) above;
v. To recommend an institutional mechanism to review and monitor implementation to realize the goal; and
vi. To examine any other related issue.
1.4 To give a brief background of the deliberations during the previous meetings it is stated that during the first meeting held on 2nd May, 2016, it was decided to work in close association with NITI Aayog and NCAER to compile data on public investments, based on the budgetary allocations for the year 2016-17, for both Government of India and State Governments covering the sectors relating to agriculture and its allied sectors like water resources, food/agro-processing, rural development, rural electrification, etc.
It was also decided to request Department of Food Processing will prepare a concept note on their respective subjects. Finally, as input management with respect to quality and cost is critical to regulate the cost of cultivation a meeting was convened with concerned divisional Heads under the chairmanship of Secretary (AC&FW) on 27th May, 2016. Subsequently, the department held series of meetings with concerned divisions viz. Crops, INM, Seeds, Credit etc and advised them to prepare and initiate plan of action in a focused manner.
1.5 In the second Meeting held on 10th June, 2016, it was stated that the targeted timeline for income doubling is March, 2022 and the total number of crop seasons available are 12 beginning with kharif 2016. Hence, it was decided that a strategy has to be finalised at the earliest and the interventions would have to begin from the current crop season (kharif) itself. Further, the report of the committee has to be implementation oriented, while simultaneously it is to be backed by appropriate data & information and their interpretation & extrapolation. The committee shall work and promote/
persuade appropriate interventions on a regular basis. It was explained, that initiatives of the department including „Input Management‟, „Promotion of Bee- keeping‟, Promoting Pulse Production‟ etc. are steps in that direction. During this meeting, it was decided that NCAER would be the Knowledge Partner.
The committee, the Knowledge Partner and the Sectoral Heads shall work on bringing out practical recommendations and may rely upon various reports and articles already available. These include: National Commission on Farmers, Strategy Report of NITI Aayog, Agriculture Reforms Commission of 1976, publication of various State Governments (M.P. has brought out one publication on income doubling recently) etc. It was clarified that the Knowledge Partner need not undertake research that involves long timelines.
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It may depend upon desk research, collect & compile data available in various surveys, reports & articles subject it to basic statistical analysis for purpose of interpretation to provide inputs to the Committee. Subsequently, NCAER has been associated with the committee as its „Knowledge Partner‟.
1.6 A third meeting on the above matter was held on 20th July, 2016 wherein a presentation was made by representative of ICAR-NIAP with respect to designing a pathway for finalisation of approach for measuring and doubling the farm income. It was decided that to design growth scenarios under different parameters, ICAR-NIAP would require huge data sets and involve analysis of multiple dimensions and would require the creation of a cell within ICAR-NIAP for handling this vital issue. The designated cell can also facilitate the finalisation, estimation and publication of farmers‟ income estimates for India as a whole and for the States. ICAR-NIAP was intimated to prepare and submit a proposal accordingly to DAC&FW for consideration.
It was also suggested that there should be no overlap in the activities of the Knowledge Partner, NCEAR and the proposed cell of ICAR-NIAP. A proposal has since been received from ICAR-NIAP for creation of Policy &
Strategy Cell (PSC) regarding estimating farm income and preparation of strategic framework with respect to Doubling Farmers‟ Income in India by 2022, which has been accorded administrative approval by the department.
1.7 A fourth meeting of the committee for doubling of farmers‟ income was held on 30th September, 2016. During this meeting it was decided that seven to eight sub-committees need to be formed pertaining to different sectors in the Ministry, which would also include skill development. These include agriculture, horticulture, livestock & dairy, fisheries, supply chain management, food processing and skill development. These committees would be given a macro picture of the growth scenario and they would be indicated the required annual growth rate to achieve the target of doubling of farmers‟ income by March, 2022. The committees would be guided with regard to input efficiency – a key factor; means to reduce cost of production/increase productivity, post-production practices, including supply chain management and risk negotiations. These committees would, in turn, cull out past practices to give a strategy in their respective areas for achieving the target by also factoring „sustainability‟. In order to orient these sub- committees, it would be necessary to prepare a base paper for their use to prepare the strategy/s. Accordingly, ICAR-NIAP would prepare a paper immediately combining the two presentations made so far i.e. one relating to the pathway for finalisation of approach for measuring and doubling the farm income, and two, the methodology of determining the farm income and present the same to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare to take the matter further.
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1.8 During the fifth meeting, ten ICAR Institutes had been called for the meeting as special invitees to tap in-house competence. Besides this, three non-official members have also been invited, who belong to the farmer community for sharing their views. The Director, ICRISAT was also invited to this meeting to share his considered views in the matter. The ICAR institutes have been requested to provide their inputs by 15.01.2017 to help in doubling farmers‟ income. Some of the ICAR institutes have shared their inputs. The inputs received so far have been shared with NCAER and NIAP.
1.9 It may be stated that as decided during the 4th meeting two sub- committees have since been constituted with regard to: (i) Post production initiatives including storage, transportation, supply chain, value chain, marketing and food processing relating to field crops, horticulture, animal husbandry & dairy and fisheries. (ii) Extension management for transfer of technology and knowledge to the farmers. The report of both the sub- committee has been received and the same has been shared with NCAER and NIAP.
1.10 A letter from the Secretary (AC&FW) has also been written to Chairman, CACP to consider the role of Minimum Support Price (MSP) in ensuring a remunerative price and higher income to the farmers from the farming activity, while formulating the recommendations on MSP.
1.11 NABARD‟s Foundation Day seminar was held on 12th July, 2016 on doubling of farmers‟ income, subsequently, NABARD had been requested to organize regional conferences on doubling of farmers‟ income, for preparing strategies and also to sensitize the State Governments. For this purpose, six Nodal States viz. Assam, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka were identified where the regional conferences may take place.
The remaining States were attached to these nodal States. NABARD has organized the regional conferences in these Nodal States, giving invitation to the other attached States to attend the conferences at the nodal States.
Besides, 12 Agro-Economic Research Centre and 03 Agro-Economic Research Units were also invited by NABARD to these regional conferences.
1.12 Further, the department has also written to all the State Government for working on an appropriate strategy as the States have a primary role in working towards realisation of doubling of farmer‟s income. The strategy should take into account the status of end-to-end activities from production to post-production stages. Some of the States like Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Arunachal Pradesh have already devised suitable strategies in this regard. The Hon‟ble Agriculture Minister has written to Hon‟ble Chief Minister of the States/UTs to devise suitable strategies in this regard and share the same for making national level strategy. The Secretary
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(DAC & FW) has also requested the State Governments to hold across-the- board deliberations and prepare a strategy that will lead to doubling the income of the farmers and share their strategies with the Central Government.
NITI Aayog has also brought out a Policy Paper: Doubling Farmers Income - Rationale, Strategy, Prospects and Action Plan (Annexure-I), which too has been shared with the State Government for evolving a suitable strategy to realize the goal.
1.13 Further a series of meeting have also been held between 14.03.2017 to 21.03.2017 with different Stakeholders in order to facilitate focussed discussion with respect to doubling of farmers‟ income. Various Sub-Groups have since been constituted on the following aspects:-
Vol. I March of Agriculture since independence and growth trends:
analysis/examination of support infrastructure (Roads, Electricity, etc.).
Vol. II Pace and direction of growth needed to double farmers‟ income by 2022.
Vol. III Post production and marketing for remunerative value realisation by the farmers: fork to farm (reverse/inverse approach).
Vol. IV-A Sustainability of agriculture.
Vol. IV-B Specific strategies for sustainability.
Vol. V Input management – Resource use efficiency/Total Factor Productivity (TFP).
Vol. VI Production enhancement through productivity gains.
Vol. VII Farm linked activities (for jobs & additional income).
Vol. VIII Risk management in agriculture.
Vol. IX Enablers – soft components.
Vol. X Research and Development.
Vol. XI Governance issues.
Vol. XII Supportive suggestions.
1.14 After series of deliberations, considering the various factors such as lower-return, Gross Value Added (GVA), fluctuation in market, growth rate etc., the first four Volumes of the draft Reports “Strategy for Doubling Farmers' Income by 2022” prepared by the committee has been uploaded on the website of this department http://agricoop.nic.in/doubling-farmers for seeking public opinion. As decided by the committee the volumes are being released sequentially in instalments, so as to enable all the stake holders and interested parties from across the country to study and absorb the analysis and recommendations.
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1.15 As a result of deliberations in DFI committee, the following steps have been taken:
a. Institutional Framework Mechanism: The Government has issued guidelines to all the States for setting up inter-ministerial/ departmental committees at State/District levels. The mandate of these committees is to achieve coordination and convergence among different activities relating to agriculture and also monitor welfare issues relating to farmers.
b. Market Reforms:
i. Seven Point Agenda (Based on Model APMC Act, 2003)-
Setting up of markets in private sector,
Direct marketing (direct purchase of produce from farmers by processors/exporters/bulk buyers, etc. outside the market yard),
Farmer-Consumer markets (direct sale by farmers to consumers) to be set up by a person other than a Market Committee,
Contract Farming.
E-Trading,
Single point levy of market fee across the State,
Single trading license across the State,
ii. APLM Act: Apart from e-NAM, Govt. is persuading States to adopt market reforms with a view to provide farmers with alternate markets.
To achieve this, a model act called Agriculture Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion & Facilitation) Act, 2017 has been shared with all States and UTs.
iii. Contract Farming: the govt. has constituted a committee for preparation of a model contract farming Act.
iv The restructuring of DMI has initiated.
c. RKVY guidelines are being changed to include entrepreneur development.
d. Road-map for Pulses Production: DAC&FW has prepared a road-map for production of pulses to the tune of 24 million tonnes by 2017-18.
e. A dedicated micro-irrigation fund with initial corpus of Rs.5000 crores has been set up in NABARD to achieve per drop more crop.
f. Computerization and integration of all 63,000 functional PACS with core banking system to be supported through NABARD.
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g. A dairy processing and infrastructure developing fund to be set up in NABARD with corpus of Rs. 8000 crores over 3 years. Fund will initially start with corpus of Rs.2000 crores.
h. Under Blue Revolution scheme the fisheries production would be increased by 50% from 10 million tonnes in 2015-16 to 15 million tonnes by 2019-20.
i. Under Rashtriya Gokul Mission, indigenous breeds would be developed in focused and scientific manner.
j. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare with support from NITI Aayog is focusing on two other important reforms. These are:
(a) Adoption of Model Land Leasing Law by the States/UTs. A draft law has been shared by NITI Aayog.
(b) Liberalize current regulatory regime for felling and transit of trees grown on non-forest as well as private land. This will promote agro- forestry and diversify farmers‟ income basket, besides providing income security against vagaries of monsoon.
Details of participating States and group team proposed for discussion of the topic (Group-VIII) in the National Conference on Agriculture for Rabi Campaign, 2017-18:
Participating States
Stakeholders Chairman Co-Chairman Moderator Rapporteur Assam,
Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and
West Bengal.
All States /SAUs /ICAR
& its Institutes
Dr. Ashok Dalwai, CEO (NRAA) /Principal Secretary (Agri.), Madhya Pradesh
Principal Secretary (Agri.), Bihar
Prof. Prem
Vashishtha, National Council of Applied Economic
Research
(NCAER), Parisila Bhawan, 11, Indraprastha Estate, New Delhi- 110002 and Dr. Raka Saxena, Sr. Scientist, ICAR-National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NIAP), DPS Marg, Pusa, New Delhi- 110012
Dr. Sanjib Pohit from National Council of Applied
Economic Research (NCAER), Parisila
Bhawan, 11, Indraprastha Estate, New Delhi-110002
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i
ii
vi