{"id":230037,"date":"2023-03-06T20:38:39","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T15:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=230037"},"modified":"2023-03-06T20:38:39","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T15:08:39","slug":"how-to-double-indias-farmers-income","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/how-to-double-indias-farmers-income\/","title":{"rendered":"How to double India\u2019s farmers\u2019 income"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>&#8211; The post is based on the article <strong>\u201cHow to double India\u2019s farmers\u2019 income\u201d <\/strong>published in <strong>The Indian Express <\/strong>on <strong>6th March 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Syllabus: <\/strong>GS3- Agriculture.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance:<\/strong> Issues related to agriculture policy<\/p>\n<p><strong>Context &#8211;<\/strong>On February 28, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared his dream of doubling farmers\u2019 incomes in the year when India completes 75 years of Independence.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the importance of agriculture?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Unless the incomes of farmers go up, s<strong>ustained high growth of GDP <\/strong>is not possible. This is because the manufacturing sector starts facing a <strong>demand constrain<\/strong>t soon after meeting the demand of well-off urban consumers, due to low income of farmers.<\/p>\n<p>Agriculture engages the <strong>largest share of the workforce<\/strong>. It is 45.55% in 2021-22 as per PLFS.<\/p>\n<p>Agriculture also provides <strong>food and nutritional security<\/strong> to the largest population on this planet.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are different types of subsidies and support provided by the government to farmers?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Government provides <strong>fertiliser subsidy<\/strong> whose budget crosses Rs 2 lakh crore. It provides income support to farmers through <strong>PM-Kisan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Many small and marginal farmers also get free ration of at least 5 kg\/person\/month through the <strong>PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>There are also <strong>subsidies for crop insurance, credit and irrigation<\/strong>. States also dole out power subsidies in abundance, especially on irrigation. Even farm machinery for custom hiring centres is being subsidised by many states.<\/p>\n<p>Combined subsidy is about Rs <strong>4 lakh crore per annum. <\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are issues with agriculture policy in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Trade and marketing policies<\/strong> adopted by the government are suppressing farmers\u2019 incomes. For example, the<strong> ban on exports, the suspension of several commodities from the futures markets, and the imposition of stocking limits<\/strong> on certain commodities.<\/p>\n<p>These are hidden policy instruments of <strong>\u201cimplicit taxation\u201d of farmers\u2019 incomes.<\/strong> This is not a <strong>\u201cpro-farmer approach\u201d<\/strong>. In fact, the approach is <strong>pro-consumer<\/strong>. This is the fundamental problem with our policy framework.<\/p>\n<p>The policy of <strong>heavy subsidisation<\/strong> along with<strong> assured and open-ended procurement<\/strong> of paddy and wheat is creating challenges for the environment.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the way forward to improve agriculture in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>There is a need to realign farmer support policies keeping in mind <strong>environmental outcomes.<\/strong> Millets, pulses, oilseeds, and much of horticulture could perhaps be given <strong>carbon credits to incentivise <\/strong>their cultivation.<\/p>\n<p>Subsidies support should be c<strong>rop-neutral.<\/strong> Even if they need to be skewed, they should be in favour of those crops that are benign to the planet\u2019s basic resources.<\/p>\n<p>There is a need for<strong> innovations in technologies, products, institutions and policies<\/strong> for more diversified high-value agriculture that is also planet friendly.<\/p>\n<p>Increasing productivity through <strong>better seeds and better irrigation<\/strong> is necessary. It will have to be combined with <strong>unhindered access to the best markets<\/strong> for their produce.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Diversifying to high-value crops<\/strong>, and even putting solar panels on farmers\u2019 fields as a third crop will be needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source&#8211; The post is based on the article \u201cHow to double India\u2019s farmers\u2019 income\u201d published in The Indian Express on 6th March 2023. Syllabus: GS3- Agriculture. Relevance: Issues related to agriculture policy Context &#8211;On February 28, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared his dream of doubling farmers\u2019 incomes in the year when India completes 75&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/how-to-double-indias-farmers-income\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How to double India\u2019s farmers\u2019 income<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10500],"class_list":["post-230037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1700489821},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}