Doubling Farmer’s Income

✅The government is planning to double the farmers' (real) income by the year 2022-23,  

measured from the agricultural year (1st July - 30th June) 2015-16. It has to be noted that growth in agricultural output does not translate into a proportionate growth in farmers’ income because of the price factor. The experience shows that in some cases, growth in output brings similar increase in farmers' income but in many cases farmers' income did not grow much with increase in output. Farmers’ welfare is more linked to farmers’ income (Output X Price) rather than the agricultural output. 

✅To double the farmers’ income, Dalwai Committee has recommended the following  

seven measures: 

1. Improvement in productivity of crops: 

 

2. Improvement in livestock productivity: 

 

3. Increase in cropping intensity: Cropping intensity is calculated by dividing the Gross Cropped Area with Net Sown Area. That means if on one acre of land, crops are grown twice a year then cropping intensity is 2. In India, the overall cropping intensity is less than 2, and this is because of less irrigation facilities, which must be increased if we  

want to increase farmers’ income. 

4. Resource use efficiency or saving in cost of production:

 

5. Diversification towards high value crops: Diversification towards high value crops (HVC) offers great scope to improve farmers' income. Average productivity of HVCs (fruits,  

vegetables, fibre, spices, sugarcane) was estimated as Rs. 1,42,000 lakhs per hectare as compared to Rs. 41,000 per hectare for staple crops (cereals, pulses, oilseeds).

 

6. Improvement in ‘terms of trade’ for farmers: Terms of trade of agriculture as compared to other sector means how the agri commodities prices are increasing/changing with  

respect to other commodities. As the prices of agri products are increasing less as  

compared to the overall inflation in the country, this is hurting farmers’ relative income.

 

7. Shifting cultivators from farm to non-farm occupations: Approximately 50% of the  

labour force is involved in agricultural activities contributing just 15% of the GDP.

✅ This shows over-dependence of workforce on agriculture with significant underemployment.  

✅This also reveals large difference in per worker productivity between agriculture and non-agriculture sectors. Thus, income of farmers can be improved substantially by  

shifting workforce away from agriculture as the available farm income will then be  

distributed to less number of workforce.

 

✅The recent agriculture reforms will help in better price realization by the farmers which will ultimately lead to achieve the target of doubling farmers’ income. 

✅Govt. of India changed the name of “Ministry of Agriculture” to “Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare” to signify that it now focuses on farmers income (welfare) and not just on agriculture production.

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