Doubling Indian farmers’ income by 2022: An overview

Growth in farm income after 2011–12 has plummeted to around one per cent, and this is an important reason for the sudden rise in agrarian distress in recent years. This may evoked the Government to think beyond ‘food security’ of the country and focus on ‘income security’ of the farmer. This announcement was quite timely and probably driven by the rising of agrarian distress and the two years of consecutive drought situation country has faced. Hon'ble Prime Minister of India desires doubling farmers’ income by 2022. Barring Bihar and West Bengal, in other states we do see an increase in average income in real terms. Among different sources of farm income, share from farming of animals indicated a considerable increment over the years. Diversification can be a major game changer and income from cultivation for facilitating doubling of income will prove to be inadequate. Policy measures aimed at increasing net income of households from animal farming will be the key driver of incomes in agricultural households.