Roadmap to double farmers' income in India

Dr. Virendra Singh, Prof. S.L. Sangani, Dr. Alok Shrivastava, Prof. Darshana B. Chaudhari
and Archana T. Mali
Department of Horticulture,
College of Agriculture,
Navsari Agricultural University,
Campus Bharuch-392012

Indian agriculture is passing through difficult times due to two consecutive drought situations
in several parts of the country, thereby resulting into wide spread distress among farmers. The rural
areas in these parts are facing food and livelihood crisis, more specifically the shortage of fodder and
drinking water. Government needs to proactively address the situation and make more long term
farmers centric policies related to irrigation, farm diversification, farm profitability and community
support programs so as to socially and economically empower farmers.
Dr. M.S Swaminathan set the agenda rolling by pointing out the two major factors that
influence the farmers i.e. market and monsoon. Market fluctuates due to uncertainty of monsoon
thereby putting farming sector in crisis. Climate change issues are also involved leading to extreme
events which are difficult to predict. He also discussed market volatility which is also affecting
highest production sector like rubber. The distress is multidimensional involving social, economic,
technological, gender and ecological aspects and therefore policy changes needs to be incorporated
and agriculture progress can take place by synergy between policy and technology. Emphasising on
the role of technology and youth in agriculture his words can be quoted as: “If agriculture goes wrong
nothing else goes right.” and “Younger people will join agriculture if it is technologically driven”.
Recommendations of the National Round Table on Doubling Farmers Incomes by 2022
Based on the recommendations of National Commission on Farmers, Government announced
measuring agricultural progress by real income of farmers and not by gross production of agricultural
commodities. The Finance Minister in his Budget 2016 Speech mentioned about doubling farm
incomes. Later the Prime Minister of India gave a call to the nation of doubling farm incomes by 2022
by spelling out 6 points strategy. Accordingly a Task Group has been formed by the Ministry of
Agriculture to come out with a detailed plans and its operationalisation. In this context, Indian
Council of Food and Agriculture organised a national consultation on 30 April, 2016 in New Delhi,
involving top experts from the Government, industry, research and academic bodies, farmers
organisations, parliamentarians and NGOs. The meet was chaired by Prof. MS Swaminathan and co-
chaired by the Secretary – Agriculture, Government of India. The average monthly income per capita
from farming increased from Rs 1,060 in 2003 to Rs 3,844 in 2013, according to the report Situational
Assessment of Agricultural Households by the NSSO, a compounded annual income growth rate of
13.7%. To double the income of farmers by 2022, in nominal (numerical) terms—which do not take
inflation into account—would require a 15% compounded income growth rate, which is a marginal
increase over the achieved increase from 2003 to 2013. However to increase the income in real terms
would imply restructuring agriculture processes & policy interventions. There is however, almost
unanimity that the net income of farmers can surely be doubled well within the period of six years.
A total of 40 recommendations for increasing incomes of farmers, have been divided into five
parts, as under:
1. Increasing incomes by improving productivity
2. Water and Agri-Input policies
3. Integrated Farming System
4. Better market price realization
5. Special Policy Measures

Increasing incomes by improving productivity:

1. Biotechnology is set to play critical role in crop and livestock production by enhancing yields,
nutritional profile, stress tolerance and crop protection. India must have a clear vision of the
GM crops. The policy support accordingly be provided for the development of seed and
 biotech industry in the country. As per studies BT cotton alone has contributed more than Rs.
80,000 crores of additional output value to farmers. Similar potential many other crops may
have for Indian agriculture and towards enhancing farmers profitability. Besides preparing
Vision Document on Biotechnology, passing the BRAI bill in the Parliament, which can
facilitate greater investments and faster rollout of biotech products, while ensuring
compliance of bio-safety measures. 2. Improving agricultural productivity in rain fed regions
of India, which constitutes more than 50% of the country‘s arable land. Besides watershed
management, constructing check dams and farm ponds should be taken up in a mission mode
for providing life saving irrigation for the crops. Chandrababu Naidu Committee report
(2003) need to be revalidated and implemented for bringing 69 million hectare area under
Micro-Irrigation to save water and input costs, increase productivity and improve quality of
output. The area expansion and subsidy to the States must be linked with the adoption of
precision agriculture model. 3. Bridging yield gaps among the States is important in
improving national productivity i.e. the gap in rice yields almost 3 times between Punjab and
Chhattisgarh. There is urgent need for developing a strategy document for assessing the
present trends of crop productivity vis-a-vis the potential yield of major crop systems, so that
specific action plans can be taken up for bridging the yield gaps, which in turn will contribute
to enhanced productivity of farming systems. Increased Budget on Farmers Inter-State
Exposure Visits and Training Scheme of MoA. This is a powerful scheme towards helping
farmer bridge the yield gap. Water and Inputs 1. Fertilizer Subsidy and Rationalizing the NPK
pricing for maintaining NPK ratio in the soil and better application technologies to improve
efficiency and reduce fertilizer subsidy by Rs. 25,000 – 30,000 crores annually. Policy on
promoting crop specific speciality fertilisers and fertigation, besides setting standards and
regulating bio-fertilisers under Soil Health Mission is needed. Since the year 2010, NP / NPK
fertilisers have been reformed and put under Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) whereas Urea
continues under direct control. Consequently, the gap in MRP of Urea and NP / NPK
fertilisers has been widening. Therefore, unless corrections are made in the fertiliser policies,
the benefit of soil health card will not be realised. And desired increase in yields in major
crops will continue to delude the nation.
2. Crop losses in India are huge and estimates range from Rs. 90,000 to Rs. 1.50 lac crores
annually. Pesticides play an important role not only in crop productivity, cost reduction and
quality improvement but also in protecting crops from pests and diseases. The cost benefit
ratio in using pesticides is heavily in favour of farmers. The Government however needs to
check flood of spurious pesticides in market by fly-by-night operators by regulating
registrations, strengthening quality enforcement and tackling corruption through provisions of
joint testing of samples.
3. Farm Mechanisation in India has been a story of tractorisation. Time has come to promoting
efficient equipments and tools and small engine driven tractors to address small farm
requirements adequately. Through a mix of specialised CHCs and with State Agros,
Cooperatives and input dealers. Developing and Custom hiring facility in farm mechanization
should be given high focus. Through MANAGE network of ACABCs, Custom Hiring
Centres can be promoted effectively by enhanced incentivisation and by provisioning to hire
agribusiness consulting companies by MANAGE / States for promoting CHCs among
ACABCs.
4. There is a need for integrated water use policy. India should critically examine several
ongoing initiatives and develop its country-wide system for judicious and integrated use and
management of water. A national commission on efficient water use in agriculture should be
established to assess the various issues, regulatory concerns, water laws and legislations,
research, technology development and community involvement. This will especially help
resource-poor farmers in the rainfed ecosystems, who practice less-intensive agriculture.
5. Farmers however need to be educated on water usage systems to drift them away from flood
irrigation systems, which affects productivity and wastes water. The most important part is
the crops planning, which needs to be done keeping water resources of a region and the water
intake by various crops in mind. For example high water consuming crops like paddy and
sugarcane should be grown in high rainfall areas.
 Integrated Farming System:
1. Promotion of Integrated farming system approach involving synergic blending of crops,
horticulture, dairy, fisheries, poultry, etc. seems viable option to provide regular income
and at site employment to small land holder, decreasing cultivation cost through multiple
use of resources and providing much needed resilience for predicted climate change
scenario. Model Farms @ Rs. 200 lacs each need to be established in each district with
100% GOI funds for farmers to learn and adopt.
2. Dairy husbandry is a boon for small farmers, as a family with three cows or buffaloes can
earn an annual income of Rs. 50,000 to 60,000, while conserving our precious native
breeds. With stall-fed, high yielding animals, the dung availability will increase by3 to 4
times, giving a boost to biogas and agricultural production. With introduction of good
goat husbandry practices by appointing local youth to facilitate the activities as Field
Guides, 35 million goat keepers in the country who are living below the poverty line, can
enhance their income by four folds from Rs. 8000 to 35,000 per annum (BAIF’s
experience in Jharkhand, Odisha and Rajasthan).
3. Promotion of intensive vegetable production using improved varieties, organic manure
and drip irrigation, can provide five times higher annual income, to the tune of Rs. 2 lakhs
per acre (BAIF’s experience in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra). Farmers in
semi-arid areas with 2-3 cows or 8-10 goats and cultivating dual purpose food grain crops
on 0.4 ha land, have been earning Rs. 60,000 – 75,000 per annum. With efficient
watershed development, land use planning and selecting of suitable crops, the income of
the farmers can go up by 80-100% to generate an annual income of Rs. 40,000 to Rs.
60,000.
Better market price realization:
1. Revision of the APMC Act and monitoring its implementation in the states. Need to amend
APMC act by all the states to encourage competitive marketing environment and participation
in NAM. Direct marketing and contract farming should be made easy for the farmers. Also to
encourage the States for contract farming under which the buyer can provide the farmer
access to modern technology, quality inputs, other support and a guaranteed price. A few
experiments of direct procurement backed with technical support have shown to benefit the
farmers in some States.
2. The launch of NAM requires easing of norms of licensing to enable seamless participation of
buyers from across the country, movements of goods without restriction, harmonization of tax
laws(including a uniform GST), standardization of grades and recognition of electronic
trades. Exchanges would also have to widen the participation by facilitating farmers to take
positions through cooperative or other aggregators such FPOs.
3. Reforms to the APMC Acts to permit pan-India trades, electronic auctions and trading in
warehousing receipts. Enactment of policies that enforces the standardization of agricultural
produce such that graded product would have a form of a logo or label mandatorily attached
to it to signify that the product meets all the standardization and grading requirement for
packing, sealing etc., and only traders who are willing to follow the regulation are given
“Certificate of Authorization”.
4. Agri infrastructure, storage systems and market yards needs to be strengthened. More
multipurpose market yard complexes, comprised of go downs, cold storage, farmers service
centre etc. needs to be set up for farmers to directly participate, especially online in NAM.
Farmers need to be educated on the available scheme of the Government. Enabling policy
provisions can be done for large scale play of corporate in agricultural marketing and storage
operations.
5. Reducing post harvest losses by strengthening grain storage infrastructure, cool chain systems
for perishables, post harvest processing and value addition, transport, marketing, commerce
and trade. FPOs can play an important role, provided they are provided proper training. FDI
policy in food sector need to be relooked and allowed with more research inputs available
now on its benefits.
Special Measures:
1. Structural reforms in agriculture pertaining to land leasing and market restrictions need to be
addressed. The market regulation on movement and procurements by private players is
hampering market growth and prices realization by farmers. Similarly due to land leasing
policies of State Governments the concept of contract farming is not successful. The
experiments of contract farming are based on "win all", bringing value to all partners in
operations. This needs to be encouraged on a large scale.
2. Through a nationwide crops competitiveness study, States’ profiling of crops and animal
resources should be done, indexing them against national and global benchmarks on cost,
quality and productivity parameters, and their short, medium and long term strategic
advantages. Based on this national indexing and estimation of market demands in short,
medium and log terms national crop planning needs to be done. If India has to succeed in
global market on a long term basis, this task is unavoidable.
3. Agriculture to be brought to the Concurrent List: Bringing the entire gamut of post production
activities in agriculture, such as PHM, marketing, processing, infrastructure, agribusiness etc..
under the concurrent list of the Constitution for better central planning, as the business of
food and agriculture is globalizing and role of central Government is increasing in making
laws and policies, especially in post harvest, trade and agribusinesses, where MNCs and
corporate sector is involved in big way.
4. Review of current scenario of farm credit and subsidy disbursement system. All financial
benefits, mainly the subsidies in different forms, should be provided and transferred directly
to farmers account through e-governance through which tracking of farmers’ application,
status and approval of all schemes is available online. Gradually phase out all subsidies
including fertiliser and only transfer money to farmers, calculating aggregate measure of
support. This improves efficiency of govt investments.
5. Implementing ambitious Agribusiness Hubs Model, operating on a national platform and
establishing 2.40 lac multi-functional Agribusiness hubs in all the Gram Panchayats of the
country. This will revolutionize the farm economy and create jobs. The project outlines
creating 10.0 million jobs, 50,000 crores of additional annual farm value, providing increased
market opportunities of Rs. 50,000 crores and initiating various multifarious socio-economic
activities, aimed at improving farm incomes.
6. ICT-based agricultural extension brings incredible opportunities and has the potential of
enabling the empowerment of farming communities. Information technology can support
better crop, fertilizer and pesticide use planning as well as disease monitoring and prevention,
both in crops and animal husbandry, besides improving farmers’ operational and financial
management and to effectively connect them with the markets for better price realisation.
7. Diversification of agriculture in the First Green Revolution areas such as Punjab, Haryana and
Western U.P. seems need of the hour. To promote diversification on ecological principles,
will require making monetary equivalence (profit margin) between the replaced
crop/commodity and enterprise with the ones planned to be introduced. Farmer is mainly
concerned with the profit he gets from a particular crop or commodity. Crops like maize,
soybean, pulses, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables have the potential to replace rice and wheat in
this area. Upward push in MSP in favour of proposed diversification crops will be a practical
option to achieve this objective.
8. Integrating all central and state subsidies, instead of reducing costs of inputs, need to be
targeted to empower farmers through infrastructure development in rural areas to promote
agribusiness, food processing, water management, soil health enhancement, seed production
and processing, custom hiring, plant protection, dairy, poultry, fisheries and enterprises etc.
This will boost up agriculture sustainability and farms profitability.
9. Strengthening Organic Food Program for India to make 10% of the global 60 billion USD
market for each. Major parts of India such as NER, HP, J&K, Uttarakhand, MP, Chhatisgarh,
Jharkhand, which are organic by default, must be made Organic by Process for the producers
to get advantage of market value.
10. Establishing Special Agriculture Zones (SAZ) by selecting export oriented and industrial use
crops. Promoting Crop Stewardship Programs, GAP and Certification, formation of Global
 Commodity Boards, on the pattern of California Walnuts, Washington Apples etc., can help
double in 5 years the current level of 1.70 lac crores of agri exports, which will benefit
farmers significantly. We need to globally position Indian food and agri produce such as
North Eastern region as Organic Zone, Spices of Kerala, Cardamom of Sikkim, Mango of
Malihabad, Orange of Nagpur, Kashmiri Apples, Bihari Litchies and Ratnagiri Mangoes, Tea
of Darjeeling, Soybean of Indore and Nilgiris…and so on and promoting Geographic
Appellation. Like tea belt of Assam, cotton belt of South India, the nation has to streamline
rice belt, wheat belt, corn belt, oil seed belt, Pulses belt, sugarcane belt, tomato belt, mango
belt, apple belt, ginger belt, turmeric belt, orange-limelemon belt, orchid belt, cut flower belt,
jack fruit belt, peach and plum belt. Likewise livestock, fishery, apiary and sericulture belts
shall also be created across the country with the objective to improve production and export.
11. Promoting scientific agriculture micro-irrigation on a very large scale. Micro irrigation along
with the nutrient application can be highly efficient and priority should be given to empower
farmers with micro irrigation. Advanced concept of Precision Agriculture need to be
promoted on a large scale, emulating the success of TN Precision Farming Project. A
National Project on Precision Agriculture on the pattern of TNPFP should be launched with
integrated approach from advance production technologies to formation of FPOs and linking
them with the markets. Studies done by LSE, Harvard, IIM-A and other premier global
institutions show an increase of 80% to 600% extra yields in different crops under Tamil
Nadu Precision farming Project.