Wednesday, 09 Oct, 2024
By: Anshul Vipat
There has been a major rise in the income of farmers in the country
The increase in income of farmers engaged in cash crops (such as tea, coffee, sugarcane, cashew and rubber) has been more prominent compared to such farmers growing non-cash crops (such as wheat, rice, maize and millets)
Days after assuming premiership of the country for the second time, Narendra Modi pledged to double farmer incomes by 2022-23, his gift to the country in the 75th year of its independence. The target may not be realised, but there has been major rise in the income of our "annadatas" in the past year.
According to a study conducted by State Bank of India’s Economic Research Department (ERD), farmers' income doubled in the financial year 2021-22 as compared to 2017-18 for certain crops in some states, like soyabean in Maharashtra and cotton in Karnataka. In all other cases, the income rose in the range of 1.3-1.7 times. The average incomes of wheat farmers in Rajasthan grew 1.3 times during the period, whereas groundnut farmers in Gujarat grew 1.5 times.
Source: State Bank of India Economic Research Department
The study is based on primary data of SBI agri portfolio across states containing granular data of various crops from agri-intensive branches analyses the change in income of farmers over the last five years.
The increase in income of farmers engaged in cash crops (such as tea, coffee, sugarcane, cashew and rubber) has been more prominent compared to such farmers growing non-cash crops (such as wheat, rice, maize and millets), according to the study. Another factor that has driven farmers income is the increase in Minimum Support Price (MSP) which has as increased by 1.5-2.3 times since 2014.
The SBI study substantiates the trend according to the 77th National Sample Survey that source of farmer income has become increasingly diverse apart from crops. According to the government's survey, estimated average monthly income per agricultural household have increased from Rs 6426 in 2012-13 to Rs 10,218 in 2018-19.
The report also lauded the Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) scheme of the government that has been instrumental in bringing a larger number of farmers (currently about 73.7 million active KCCs) under the ambit of formal credit mechanism at subsidised rate of interest from institutional players.
