Centre to states: Make own plans to double farm income

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 19 

Putting the onus on states, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh today asked them to chalk out individual strategies to achieve the target of doubling farmers’ income by 2022. 

The minister said the Centre had come out with a four-volume report suggesting ways to boost farmers’ income, which states could study and see how best it could be implemented.

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Addressing a two-day national conference to evolve a sowing strategy for the rabi season, he said the focus should not only be on crop productivity, but also on allied farm activities like timber and honeybee cultivation.

“The government’s aim is to increase productivity and ensure farmers get the remunerative price for their produce,” he said, recounting the schemes undertaken to achieve the target of doubling farmers’ income. 

While implementing these schemes, he said, states should devise their own strategy to boost farmers’ income by focusing on production-to-post-harvest activities. 

This puts the onus of achieving Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aim of doubling farmers’ income by 2022 on states. In defence, ministry officials said agriculture was a state subject, hence the onus was also on them.

Meanwhile, the Centre has also drafted a new “market assurance scheme”, which will enable states to do agricultural market intervention at their own level. Officials said the state had been asked to study and share how they wish to implement the scheme.