State Specific Strategies for Doubling Farmers Income - 2022

Abstract

“ If farmers give up farming, even the Rishis (Sages) cannot afford to survive. ” - Thirukkural ( 300 BC )

The above sacred verse from an ancient Indian literary text opines that no living person, however minimal his worldly needs be, could think of leading their lives without farming and the statement remains true even today. The Prime Minister’s call to double farmers’ income by 2022 has brought a major change in the focus of agricultural sector from the traditional production orientation to income orientation and created renewed interest among all major stakeholders in the country, ranging from the agricultural research community, policy makers, state authorities, extension agencies, private players, and more importantly the farming community. Several reformative steps have been taken by the Government in this regard which target; re-orientation of focus from intensification to diversification, from sustenance to commercialization, and turning the agricultural units to enterprises. A series of programs/initiatives have been floated by the Govt. to execute and monitor the outreach of technologies, soil health card scheme, simplification of agriculture credit, PM Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana. Price supports are now provided to include several new crops and price stabilisation funds have been created, agriculture credit facilities strengthened. APMC act has been modified and National Agricultural Market (eNAM) platform created to provide direct market access to producers/farmers by linking them to all the major mandis of the country to ensure better returns. To minimise the distress among farming community, innovative agri-insurance scheme besides PM Kisan Samman Nidhi and PM Kisan Pension Yojana have also been started. Entrepreneurship is being promoted for increased income and employment security. In pursuance of the clarion call given by the Hon’ble Prime Minister and the policy initiative taken by the Government of India in this regard, ICAR took efforts to develop state specific strategy documents with major focus on the key agricultural technologies and their combinations along with effective technology delivery mechanism and market linkage. In this connection ICAR requested Prof. Ramesh Chand, Member, Agriculture, NITI Aayog to make presentation in the ICAR Directors Conference on 14th February, 2017. Subsequently, ICAR constituted Statewise Coordination Committees (SCCs) with the Vice Chancellor of one of the Agricultural Universities in the state as the Chairman and one of the Directors of ICAR Institutes/ ATARIs as the convener of the Committee. All the other Vice Chancellors and the ICAR Directors, Director, ATARI of the concerned region, one nominee each of DAC&FW, DAHDF, Ministry of Food Processing Industries and Ministry of Water Resources as well as the senior representatives of the concerned State Departments as the members of the Committee. Senior representatives from CGIAR system and Commodity Boards and the Farmers Organizations were co-opted as additional members in some of the Committees as per requirement. The Committees were assigned the task of developing the comprehensive strategy documents on doubling farmers’ income by 2022 for their respective states indicating existing productivity and income levels in the states, interventions to double the income of farmers by the year 2022, proposed action plan, mechanism for monitoring and midcourse correction etc. NITI Aayog Documents and the presentation made by Prof. M. S. Swaminathan before the Hon’ble Prime Minister on the subject and other relevant documents were also shared with the Chairmen and the Conveners of SCCs to develop the state specific proposals accordingly. While developing the strategies the committee were asked to take into consideration, the, agro-ecologies of the State, land use and cropping pattern, natural resource endowments, important development indicators, infrastructure for agriculture and Government programmes, productivity gaps and major constraints keeping into mind the scope and potential for development of Horticulture, Livestock, Fisheries, Agro-forestry and Post-harvest processing etc. in the states. Besides, the plans have given special focus on the role of technology and developing the strategy and action plan for enhancing production, cost reduction, quality improvement and generating additional income. Potential contribution to farmers’ income and strategy for scaling out these technologies (Technology information/packages validated/successfully demonstrated) have also been included. Focus is also given on Value Chain Development, Market Linkages and Trade Potential, Policy and Investment Requirements and Role of the Government besides giving implementation plan along with the institutional responsibilities. The documents developed by various SCCs were presented by them in the states as well as at the level of Council. The final round of presentations was made by all the SCCs in the joint meeting chaired by Professor (Dr.) M. S. Swaminathan, at NASC Complex, New Delhi on 3rd November, 2017. Based on the suggestions received, the documents were further refined by bridging critical gaps and identifying the actionable points and the points of convergence between various Departments and stakeholders. The final documents submitted by the SCCs were released by the Hon’ble Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, Government of India in the Vice Chancellors and ICAR. Directors Annual Conference on 8th March, 2018. The finally developed documents received from all SCCs were shared with respective state governments through the Minister of Agriculture State Specific Strategies for Doubling Farmers Income – 2022 and the Director General, ICAR who sent these documents to the respective Chief Ministers and Chief Secretaries concerned for implementation. In all, twenty-nine States and the UT of Delhi were covered in this exercise. While the States were being requested to implement and scale-up the strategies in their states in different agro-ecologies in their respective states, ICAR has taken initiatives to implement the recommended package of practices through KVKs by adopting two villages each and demonstrating the technologies at farm level through farm level demonstrations. ICAR Institutes notably Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow took initiatives for doubling farmers income in Public Private Partnership Model to harness the potential of sugarcane sector towards doubling farmers income, and initiated a joint venture with DCM Shriram Limited (DSL), New Delhi in command areas of four sugar mills in 2017 to double income of all 2028 farm families in eight villages of two districts by introducing technological, human resource and developmental interventions. Blue print of required interventions (sugarcane based and in allied agri-enterprises) were developed and implemented with logistic and financial support of DSL group with impressive results. Similar models are being developed and promoted in other ICAR Institutes. The strategies in the document focus on increased emphasis on agri-business through transforming farming into agri-enterprises performing multiple functions at one point of time. Encouraging processing and building value chains would help create non-farm jobs in rural areas. Neither the productivity centric nor the marketing and price centric approach are going to work in isolation. Every commodity has to be dealt in a holistic value chain approach where suitable interventions are required at all the critical stages. The implementation of DFI strategies by the states needs formulation of strategic plans for all sub-sectors and effective linkages among the high-powered think tanks and implementing bodies. Indian Council of Agricultural Research through its Research Institutes and State Agricultural Universities is advising states to implement these strategies. Centre-State linkages would be extremely important in mainstreaming and channelizing the policies and investment to the targeted goals for development. A crucial role will have to be played by the state and state development agencies in implementing state plans and working on strategic framework the implementation and mid-course correction involving all stakeholders for fulfilling the objective.