and Bundelkhand. As per the
National Sample Survey
Organisation (NSSO) survey, 46
percent of farming households are
burdened by debt and the loans
are from different institutions.
“It may be true in few cases but
then over period of time the
things have begun to change. For
small farms, the migration,
remittances, service sector
employment etc. I think we are
not accounting for all the source
of incomes,” says Prof Prabhu
Pingali. He gives an example to
support his point. “If I travel to a
remote village in Orissa and list
out all sources of income, I can
see that there are increasingly
other sources of earning money
by farmers apart from farming.
The sole dependence on
agriculture is changing and
there are diverse sources that
are increasing. So when overall
you add up the sources, the
story changes.”
As per agriculture ministry,
during last year, the enhancement
of farmers’ income has been 18.95
to 25 percent. At the same time,
the national estimates show that
poverty among smallholders is
much higher than for other
farmers. The rising number of
marginal and small landholdings
along with the large number of
people that continue to be
employed in agriculture is a major
development challenge for
policymakers. This highlights the
opportunity of adopting the
concept of smart villages and
promoting productive enterprises
to raise income levels of marginal
landholders and landless
agricultural labourers as well as
promoting non-farm activities
within rural areas.
Government is trying to
encourage farmers through
“
We must think future is positive but
need to keep in mind that majority of our
population in future would be urbanized. The
demand for safer and quality
food would only increase. To
provide that attention and
investments would be the key
to agriculture progress.
Prof Prabhu L Pingali, Director, TataCornell Institute (TCI)
various schemes to turn to
alternative livelihoods. For
example the Blue Revolution
scheme of Department of
Fisheries is providing incentives
to farmers for starting fish
cultivation within farming fields.
Agro-forestry is being encouraged
and some new programmes like
“Medh Par Ped” have been
initiatives and extension and
capacity building support is
being provided to farmers for
additional income.
Coming to the hardcore
agriculture, the agriculture
ministry claims that by the next
year about 14 crore farmers will
get Soil Health Card and
significant numbers will get the
insurance cover. The premium
under Prime Minister Fasal Bima
Scheme has been reduced
significantly with full coverage of
the loss. Under Soil Health Card
scheme, Rs 368.30 crore has been
allocated this year compared to Rs
142 crore last year. Besides that
an allocation of Rs 5500 crore in
the year 2016-17 budget has been
made under Pradhan Mantri
Fasal Bima Yojana which was are
Rs 3,185 crore in the previous
budget. This is an increase of
about 73 percent in this scheme.
Subsequently, Rs 500 crore has
also been allocated by Finance
Minister and there is further
demand for Rs 10,583 crore.
NABARD is making groups of
farmers and agriculture producers
to provide them cheap
agricultural loans from banks. Till
January 2016 across the country
14.43 lakh joint liability groups
were formed and by March 2016,
NABARD has set up
approximately 2424 producer
groups. The Minister said that
from April 2005 to March 2014,
Rs. 6775 crore were spent.
Whereas, the new Government
has, from April 2014 until
December 2015, extended Rs
7084 crore as financial assistance
to joint liability groups. The
cooperative societies will be able
to withstand the competitive
global economy. The development
of the rural economy and to
increase employment
opportunities in the agricultural,
cooperatives have an important
role to play.
Few steps by the government are
indeed novel. For example, the
cleaning drives were undertaken
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