Replying to a query on whether the Centre was able to double farmers’ income by 2022 as promised, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Friday said the scheme has “yielded remarkable results.”
“Implementation of these schemes has yielded remarkable results towards augmenting the income of the farmers,” Tomar said.
He was responding to a question by MPs in Rajya Sabha. Tomar also listed 18 schemes that the Centre has implemented to double farmers’ income by 2022.
Prime Minister Modi had, in 2016, pledged to double farmers’ income by 2022.
“The govt has constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee in April 2016 to examine issues relating to ‘Doubling of Farmer’s Income (DFI)’ and recommend strategies to achieve the same. The final report submitted by the Committee in 2018 recommendations seven sources of income growth,” the minister said.
These include an increase in crop productivity and livestock productivity; reduction in the cost of production; increase in cropping intensity; diversification to high-value agriculture; remunerative prices on farmers’ produce and a shift of surplus manpower from farm to non-farm occupations, he added.
Additionally, Tomar said that as a part of ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has released a book, which contains a compilation of success stories of 75,000 farmers who have increased their income by more than two times.
