Agri meet mulls ways to double farmers’ income

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 10

In a “Top 100 Agriculture Meet” held here on Monday, 33 progressive farmers, 33 agricultural scientists and 33 bureaucrats held a brainstorming session in the presence of Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar to improve farmers’ lives.

Suggestions ranging from crop diversification to minimum support price for all 22 crops to mechanisation for cutting labour costs were put forward by most of the scientists to double farmers’ income by 2022.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who was chief guest at the concluding ceremony, said doubling farmers’ income was a vague term since the income of farmers depended on the area, cropping pattern and many other factors.

He said his government was of the view that farmers should earn at least Rs 1 lakh per acre per annum though this might prove insufficient after a few years with devaluation of the rupee. Dhankar said during the past four years, Rs 3,634 crore had been given to farmers by way of compensation.

He said Rs 890 crore was paid by insurance companies under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), Rs 2,500 crore by the Disaster Management Department for damage to crops and Rs 268 crore as compensation left unpaid by the previous Congress government.

Reacting to a complaint by progressive farmer Dharambir Dagar of Kurukshetra that farmers’ claims under the PMFBY were not being settled for long, Dhankar alleged that opposition parties often unduly criticised the PMFBY and farmers sometimes fell into their trap though they had gained much from this scheme.