Government presented the vision of doubling farmer incomes
by 2022-23 however there was no assessment of the base (2015-16) aggregate
income levels. Germany has told India it can play key role in doubling farmers’
income as the European nation has the expertise in in farm mechanisation and
post-harvest management.
Obstacles:
1) High Input costs:
a) Land degradation has become a major challenge and cost of
farming is constantly rising with usage of fertilizer, pesticides, expensive
seed varieties, machinery, labour cost, rise in fuel prices, vagaries of
monsoon. This further complicates the livelihood of farmers
b) In India, farmers are poor due to low productivity (yield per
hectare) of all major crops.
2) Farmers income remained low:
a) India had record food production in 2017-18, but farmers’
income remained low and stagnant.
b) According to Ashok Dalwai committee, farmer’s income remained
about 15-40% of consumer’s price.
3) Government Policies:
a) India has excessively dependent on MSP to drive crop planning
by farmers. MSP is restricted only to few crops.
b) In good harvest years, neither are MSP increased to ensure a
floor price that covers costs and offers a remunerative return, nor is enough
procured to ensure that even the MSP offered serves as a floor for market
prices.
Measures needed to be taken:
1) Technology:
a) Use water-use efficient technologies that can improve
significantly the produce like drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation.
b) Precision agriculture, GM Crops should be encouraged drought
prone areas.
c) Space technology and Mobiles should act as “Eyes and Ears” of
the farmers to assist in farming.
2) Distress Management:
Establish farmers’ distress and disaster relief commissions at
the national and State levels, based on the model of Kerala Farmers’ Debt
Relief Commission.
3) The creation of a competitive, stable and unified national
market is needed for farmers to get better prices.
4) For better price for farmers, agriculture has to go beyond
farming and develop a value chain comprising farming, wholesaling, warehousing,
logistics, processing and retailing.
Government has set up many committees like Swaminathan
committee and the recent Ashok Dalwai committee to give solutions to agrarian
distress in India.
To achieve government’s goal of doubling farmers’ incomes
by 2022-23, the Dalwai Committee points out that farmers real incomes need to
grow at 10.4 per annum, that is 2.8 times the growth rate achieved
historically.