National Sample Survey Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) conducted a Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of Agricultural Households during NSS 77^th round (January 2019- December 2019) with reference to the agricultural year July 2018- June 2019 in the rural areas of the country. As per the Survey, the percentage distribution of agricultural householdsowning less than two hectares of land is 89.4%.

Agriculture is a State subject. The Government of India is committed to the welfare of farmers. It has launched various central sector and centrally sponsored schemes from time to time covering entire spectrum of agriculture in order to ensure welfare of farmers including small and marginal farmers in the country. Apart from the schemes, Government of India has also taken several initiatives to enhance income and improve quality of life of farmers. In this regard, Government had constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee in April, 2016 to examine issues relating to “Doubling of Farmers Income (DFI)” and recommended strategies to achieve the same. The Committee submitted its final report to the Government in September, 2018 containing the strategy for doubling of farmers’ income through various policies, reforms & programmes. As per the strategy, Government has adopted and implemented several policies, reforms, developmental programmes and schemes for achieving higher incomes for the farmers directly or indirectly. These include:

1. Unprecedented enhancement in budget allocation:

In the year 2013-14 the budget allocation of Ministry of Agriculture (including DARE) and Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying was only 30223.88 crore. This has increased by more than 4.35 times to Rs. 1,31,612.41 crore in 2023-24.

2. Income support to farmers through PM KISAN:

Launch of PM-KISAN in 2019, an income support scheme providing ₹ 6000 per year in 3 equal instalments. More than ₹ 2.24 lakh crores has been released so far to more than 11 crore eligible farmers.

3. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY):

PMFBY was launched in 2016 addressing problems of high premium rates for farmers and reduction in sum insured due to capping. In past 6 Years of implementation 38 crore farmer applications have been enrolled and over 12.37 crores (Provisional) farmer applicants have received claims. During this period, nearly ₹ 25,252 crores were paid by farmers as their share of premium against which claims of over ₹ 1,30,015 crore (Provisional) have been paid to them. Thus, for every 100 rupees of premium paid by farmers, they have received about ₹ 514 as claims.

4. Institutional credit for agriculture sector:

(i)        Increased from ₹ 7.3 lakh crore in 2013-14 with a target to reach ₹ 18.5 lakh crore in 2022-23. Benefit of concessional institutional credit through KCC at 4% interest per annum has also now been extended to Animal Husbandry and Fisheries farmers for meeting their short-term working capital needs.

(ii)          A special drive has been undertaken since February 2020 to provide concessional institutional credit with focus on covering all PM-KISAN beneficiaries through Kisan Credit Cards (KCC). As on 23.12.2022, 387.87 lakh new KCC applications have been sanctioned with a sanctioned credit limit of ₹ 4,49,443 crore as part of the drive.

5. Fixing of Minimum Support Price (MSP) at one-and-a half times the cost of production :

 

1. Government has increased the MSP for all mandated Kharif, Rabi and other commercial crops with a return of at least 50 per cent over all India weighted average cost of production from 2018-19.
2. MSP for Paddy (common) has increased to ₹ 2040 per quintal in 2022-23 from ₹ 1310 per quintal in 2013-14.
3. MSP for Wheat increased from ₹ 1400 per quintal in 2013-14 to ₹ 2125 per quintal in 2022-23.

 

6. Promotion of organic farming in the country:

 

1. Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) was initiated in 2015-16 to promote organic farming in the country. 32384 clusters have been formed and an area of 6.53 lakh hectare has been covered, benefitting 16.19 lakh farmers. In addition, Under Namami Gange Programme, 123620 hectare area covered and under natural farming 4.09 lakh hectare area covered. Farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Jharkhand have taken-up organic farming on either side of the river Ganga to control river water pollution as well as to fetch additional income to farmers.
2. Government also proposes to promote sustainable natural farming systems through the scheme Bhartiya Prakratik Krishi Padhati (BPKP). The proposed scheme aims at cutting down cost of cultivation, enhancing farmer’s income and ensuring resource conservation and, safe and healthy soils, environment and food.
3. Mission Organic Value Chain Development in North East Region (MOVCDNER) has been launched. 379 Farmer Producer Companies have been formed comprising of 189039 farmers and covering 172966 hectares area.

 

7. Per Drop More Crop:

Per Drop More Crop (PDMC) scheme was launched in the year 2015-16 which aims to increase water use efficiency, reducing cost of inputs and increasing productivity at the farm level through Micro Irrigation technologies i.e. drip and sprinkler irrigation systems. So far, an area of 69.55 lakh hectare has been covered under Micro irrigation through the PDMC scheme from the year 2015-16.

8. Micro Irrigation Fund:

A Micro Irrigation Fund of initial corpus ₹ 5000 crore has been created with NABARD. In the Budget Announcement for 2021-22, the corpus of the fund is to be increased to ₹10000 crores. Projects worth ₹ 4710.96 crores covering 17.09 lakh hectares have been approved.

9. Promotion of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs):

 

1. To bring scales of economy to agricultural operations a new Central Sector Scheme for Formation & Promotion of new 10,000 FPOs was launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister on 29^th February, 2020 with budget outlay of ₹ 6865 crore till 2027-28.
2. As on 30.11.2022, 4028 number of FPOshave beenregistered under new FPO scheme.
3. Equity Grant of Rs 53.4 crore  has been released to 1415 FPOs as on 30.11.2022
4. As on 12.12.2022, Credit Guarantee Cover worth Rs. 78 crore issued to 447 FPOs

 

10. A National Beekeeping and Honey Mission (NBHM) has been launched in 2020 as part of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan to increase productivity of crops through pollination and increase in honey production as an additional source of income. ₹ 500 crore for the period 2020-2021 to 2022-2023 has been allocated for beekeeping sector. 114 projects for assistance of about ₹ 139.23 crores, approved/ sanctioned for funding under NBHM during 2020-21 & 2021-22 till date. 
11. Agricultural Mechanization:

 

Agricultural mechanization is an extremely vital to modernize agriculture and reduce drudgery of farming operations. During the period from 2014-15 to March, 2022, an amount of ₹5490.82 crores has been allocated for agricultural mechanization. 13,88,314 numbers of machines and equipments have been provided to farmers on subsidy basis. 18,824 custom hiring centers, 403 high-tech hubs and 16,791 farm machinery banks have been established to make available agricultural machines and equipments to the farmers on rental basis. During the year 2022-23, so far, an amount of ₹ 504.43 crores has been released for distribution of around 65302 machines on subsidy, establishment of 2804 CHCs, 12 Hi-tech hubs and 1260 Village Level Farm Machinery Banks.

12. Providing Soil Health Cards to farmers:

Soil Health Card Scheme was introduced in the year 2014-15 to optimize usage of nutrients. The following numbers of cards have been issued to farmers;

1. Cycle-I (2015 to 2017) – 10.74 crore
2. Cycle-II (2017 to 2019)- 12.19 crore
3.        Model Village Programme (2019-20)- 23.71 lakh
4.        In the year 2020-21-11.52 lakh

 

13. Setting up of National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) extension Platform:

 

1. 1. 1260 mandis of 22 States and 03 UTs have been integrated to e-NAM platform.

   2. As on 29.11.2022, more than 1.74 crore Farmers & 2.37 Lakh traders have been registered on e-NAM portal.

   3. Total volume of 6.8 crore MT & 20.05 crore numbers (bamboo, betel leaves, coconut, lemon & sweet corn) collectively worth approximately ₹ 2.33 lakh crore of trade has been recorded on e-NAM platform as on 29.11.2022.

 

14. Launch of the National Mission for Edible Oils and Oil Palm (NMEO):

 NMEO has been approved with a total outlay of ₹ 11,040 crore. This will bring an additional area of 6.5 lakh hectare under Oil Palm plantation with 3.28 lakh hectare in the north-eastern states and 3.22 lakh hectare in the rest of India in the next 5 years. The major focus of the Mission is to provide Viability Prices of fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) to the farmers linked with assured procurement by industry with a simpler price fixing formula. The Central Government will compensate farmers through a viability gap payment if price paid by industry is below the viability price up to October, 2037.

15. Agri Infrastructure Fund (AIF):

Since inception of AIF in the year 2020, the scheme has sanctioned an amount of ₹14,170 crore worth agriculture infrastructure in the country for more than 19191 projects. With the support of the scheme, various agriculture infrastructures were created and some of the infrastructure are at the final stage of completion. These infrastructures include 8215 warehouses, 3076 primary processing units, 2123 custom hiring centres, 992 sorting & grading units, 728 cold store projects, 163 assaying units and around 3632 other kinds of post-harvest management projects and community farming assets.

16. Improvement in farm produce logistics, introduction of Kisan Rail:

Kisan Rail has been launched by Ministry of Railways to exclusively cater to movement of perishable agrihorti commodities. First Kisan Rail was started in July 2020. Till 31^st December, 2022, 2359 services on 167 routes have been operated.

17. MIDH - Cluster Development Programme:

The Cluster Development Programme (CDP) is designed to leverage geographical specialisation of horticulture clusters and promote integrated and market-led development of pre-production, production, post-harvest, logistics, branding, and marketing activities. DA&FW has identified 55 horticulture clusters, of which 12 have been selected for the pilot phase of the CDP.

18. Creation of a Start-up Eco system in agriculture and allied sector:

So far, 1102 Start-ups during FY 2019-20 to 2022-23 have been finally selected by different knowledge partners and agribusiness incubators of DA&FW. A total of ₹ 66.83 crore grants-in-aid has been released for funding to these Start-ups to the respective Knowledge Partners (KPs) & RKVY RAFTAAR Agri Business Incubator (R-ABIs) as grants-in-aid support by DA&FW.

19.     Achievement in Export of Agri and Allied Agri- Commodities:

The country has witnessed emphatic growth in export of agri and allied commodities. As compared to the year 2020-21, the Agri and allied export has increased from 41.86 billion USD in 2020-21 to 50.24 billion USD in 2021-22 i.e. an increase of 19.99%.

The efforts of Government at positive implementation of these schemes have yielded remarkable results towards augmenting the income of the farmers As part of the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has released a book, which contains compilation of success stories of 75,000 farmers out of innumerable successful farmers who have increased their income more than two times.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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SNC/PK/2722

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