Doubling Farmers Research Articles

Strategies for Doubling Farmers’ Income in Nutri-Cereals by 2022: Impact of Reduction of Yield Gaps and Inclusion of Fallow and Wasteland under Cultivation

To achieve the target of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, the study has suggested a practical measure of increasing focus on production of millets in the country. For increasing the productivity of millets and consequently income of farmers, the study has looked into the impact of reduction in yield gap and inclusion of fallow and waste lands under cultivation. The study has also suggested a way to absorb the additional production of millets in the country. Several value-added products of millets have been reported whose demand can be created and farmers’ income can be increased. In addition, policy and incentive support for federating farmers, farm gate warehouse and processing in village clusters, linking farmers to the value chains of both nutri-grains and nutri-fodder and the platform of e-NAM can enable better price and enhanced income to farmers.

Futuristic Private and Public Capital Requirements in Agriculture for Doubling Farmers’ Income across the States

The government's aim to double farmer's real income by 2022–23 requires estimates on the magnitude of private and public capital formation in agriculture and allied activities in the past so that the futuristic investment requirements may be worked out. This paper estimates state-wise public investment ‘in’ and ‘for’ agriculture from 1981–82 to 2013–14, based on the capital expenditure on key economic heads in Finance Accounts and private (farm household) investment for 1981–81, 1991–92, 2002–03 and 2012–13 based on NSS-AIDIS (schedule 18.2) data. The incremental capital output ratios have been calculated to determine the rate of increase in agriculture and rural infrastructural investments, which would augment, if not double farm income over the 7-year period. The analysis indicates that both private and public investments in agriculture have increased manifold. Assuming that demand for output continues and capital-use efficiency remains unchanged, an investment rate of 26.1 per cent would facilitate doubling of farm income. In absolute terms, an additional investment of 645 billion on private account and 1900 billion on public account at 2015–16 prices would be required by 2022–23, which should grow annually at 10.8 per cent and 14.7 per cent, respectively. Though it is easier for the respective state governments to meet this target, it is more important to improve the marginal efficiency of capital in irrigation, rural energy and road-transport, by investing in area-specific and domain-specific needs so as to reap maximum gains. The government must prioritize investments in the less-developed eastern and rainfed states due to higher additional returns per unit of capital compared to that in the developed states. A substantial increase in the institutional credit is recommended to cover as many farmers as possible.

Effective Implementation of Agricultural Price and Marketing Policy for Doubling Farmers Incomes: Doable Priority Actions

This paper highlights some doable action points in the realm of implementation of agricultural prices and marketing policies that need emphasis by policy makers and development agencies in the country. It discusses issues related to effective implementation of minimum support price (MSP) and also under-use of market intervention scheme. The relevance and importance of agricultural price forecast system is discussed along with the needed actions. A brief review of two important initiatives within the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) is presented along with the capacity that has been built in the country. The paper also gives some suggestions on speeding up of third phase of agricultural marketing reforms and outlines the progress on move towards National Agricultural Market (e-NAM). It brings out the issues related to farmers’ demand for ‘cost-plus formula’ for deciding the level of MSPs by the government and finally suggests some doable actions on the implementation of agricultural prices and marketing policies to enhance farmers’ income.

Importance of livestock sector in doubling farmers Income by 2022

The present paper mainly focuses on the target of doubling the farmers ’income by 2022. In this context emphasis is mainly given to the livestock sector especially dairy sector. It is an attempt to show the importance of livestock sector and their hidden potential which farmers ’can utilize in their farming system in order to increase their income apart from agriculture. India has the largest livestock resources when compared to other countries. So it is a boon extremely for the small farmers who own a small piece of land. Therefore, there is a need is to identify its unrealized potential and utilize it in an efficient way.

How to double farmers’ income by 2022?: A sector-wise growth rate and decomposition analysis

How to double farmers’ income by 2022?: A sector-wise growth rate and decomposition analysis

Framework for doubling the income of wheat producers’ by 2022: trends, pathway and drivers

Indian agriculture is at crossroads owing to the agrarian distress which manifests itself in various forms affecting farmers’ welfare. The present paper tracks the trend in wheat producers’ income between 2006–07 and 2013–14 followed by suggesting framework for doubling farmers’ income (DFI) by 2022. Convergence between science & technology, institutions and policy with emphasis on potential drivers like productivity enhancement through improved genotypes coupled with adoption of cost reduction technologies, diversification, irrigation, price realisation under efficient markets, terms of trade, risk adaptation, public-private partnership, skilling and land use governed by strong policies and leadership at all levels will enable an environment for DFI.

A study on jaggery production export status and doubling farmer income in potential district of Maharashtra

Sugarcane is the main raw material required in the preparation of sugar and jaggery. India is the largest producer of the sugar and jaggery in the world. Since ancient times, jaggery has been an important item of food and even today. Trend analysis shows sugarcane production was increases but in the year 2007–08 slight variation, further results have shown that the price of jaggery is directly related with the production of sugarcane in the study area. At the same time by using the power function it is expected the jaggery price for the year 2015–16 and 2016–17 will be 2895.375 per quintal and 2972.589 quintal respectively. There are some quality factors which determine the price of the jaggery from both wholesaler and trader point of view and from wholesalers ’point of view it was observed that, color, packaging and uniformity were major factors to determine jaggery prices while as oer exporters ’point of view season, color and packaging were major factors to determine jaggery prices. Further the major problems faced by the different stakeholders i.e. jaggey producers, traders and exporters were also studied. It was observed that most severe problem faced by jiggery producers and traders was high fluctuation in prices, followed by high commission charges, malpractices during transportation and delay in payment. From exporter point of view, most severe problem was price fluctuation in international market, followed by lack of quality products, and fluctuation in international demand. The study revealed that with addressing these issues growers can be benefitted and further an attempt can be made towards doubling their income.

Raising Farm Income in India: What Does a Simultaneous Quantile Regression Approach Tell?

This paper focuses on the contribution of farm income component of farmers’ income and traces its determinants by Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households 2012–13. This study analyses the determinants of farm income by Simultaneous Quantile Regression Model (SQRM) and highlights that contribution of farm income to double farmers’ income would not be attainable without considering the variability of impact of different factors across farm income groups. The distribution of farm income is highly skewed; explanatory variables do not influence farm income in a similar manner across all quantiles, and the failure of identification of the specificity of the predictor variables is prone to be affected by generalization. Results indicate that coefficients estimated by SQRM mostly retain signs but their magnitude and significance differ across quantiles of farm income. The results further indicate that loan outstanding per hectare and machinery hiring inversely impact farm income at lower quantiles of agricultural households contrary to, insignificant or positive impacts on higher quantiles of farm income households. From the policy point of view, it may be argued that it is more important to focus on the low farm income households rather than considering the entire farm income distribution aggregately. Alternative sources of income have an immense role in the upgradation of the economic situation of the agricultural households, a frontal strategy to raise farm income will naturally have to take into account the determinants of this income of different groups of farmers, and in particular, strategies must target specific issues faced by low farm income groups.

Harvesting Solar Power in India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set an ambitious target of 100,000 MW of solar power capacity to be achieved by 2022, when India celebrates 75 years of her independence. This is a grand vision for ushering in a sort of revolution in clean energy in India in the next six years. In a country that generates more than 60 percent of its power by burning coal, and where air quality is fast worsening in several Indian cities, the need for clean energy cannot be overstated. Interestingly, Prime Minister Modi has also set another ambitious target of doubling farmers' incomes by 2022! The uppermost question in everyone's mind is: can these targets be achieved by 2022? This is particularly so when the current solar power capacity in the country has just touched 8000 MW by July end, 2016, and no country in the world has such an ambitious target as India has set out for 2022. On farmers' real incomes, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the recent past (FY2003 to FY 2013) has been mere 3.5 percent; and doubling these incomes by 2022 would mean increasing this CAGR from 3.5 percent to more than 12 percent. Despite these stunningly ambitious targets, our take in this paper is that a significant progress can be made towards achievement of both of these goals, provided both are conceived and implemented in unison, a sort of marrying each other, with innovative policies- like the guaranteed feed-in-tariffs (FIT) for solar power generated on farmers' fields- to back this alliance. It should not be a difficult proposition as FIT already exists in case of wind energy, the scale of which is much more (27 GW) than that of solar power (8GW). Since the costs of solar power have come down drastically during the last couple of years, and now compete very well with the costs of power generation from burning coal, this would help generate clean energy in a cost effective manner as well as help augment farmers' real incomes. A true model of competitiveness with inclusiveness, and this can be scaled up in a sustainable manner. This will also help to reduce power subsidies of state electricity boards (SEBs), wherever solar power can substitute existing connections. Our confidence in approaching these twin goals comes from the rapidly falling costs of solar power (by about 70percent since 2010-11) and its champion support, which comes from the highest political level, i.e., the Prime Minister himself, and no opposition from any other political parties for such a bold initiative. The only thing to be seen is how to raise advance capital funds to get this going, how to organize farmers on these lines, how to convince the discoms for guaranteed feed-in-tariffs, and how long it is persevered till the goals are reached! In undertaking such gigantic twin missions, it is always wise to look for best practices and technologies around the world. Japan, China, UK, Israel all offer interesting examples, but the global leader in solar power today is Germany. And it has a lot to offer India, with a win-win collaboration between business to business (B2B) on both sides as well as government to government (G2G) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to facilitate transfer of technologies, skills, training and practices, and above all some long term finances. Such an Indo-German alliance for solar power can be a catalyst of change not only generating clean energy but also building green Indian agri-value chains and directly augmenting farmers' incomes. This will be a global showcase of competiveness with inclusiveness and the time to take up this idea and scale it up is NOW!

Tradeoffs between income, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning during tropical rainforest conversion and agroforestry intensification

Losses of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning due to rainforest destruction and agricultural intensification are prime concerns for science and society alike. Potentially, ecosystems show nonlinear responses to land-use intensification that would open management options with limited ecological losses but satisfying economic gains. However, multidisciplinary studies to quantify ecological losses and socioeconomic tradeoffs under different management options are rare. Here, we evaluate opposing land use strategies in cacao agroforestry in Sulawesi, Indonesia, by using data on species richness of nine plant and animal taxa, six related ecosystem functions, and on socioeconomic drivers of agroforestry expansion. Expansion of cacao cultivation by 230% in the last two decades was triggered not only by economic market mechanisms, but also by rarely considered cultural factors. Transformation from near-primary forest to agroforestry had little effect on overall species richness, but reduced plant biomass and carbon storage by approximately 75% and species richness of forest-using species by approximately 60%. In contrast, increased land use intensity in cacao agroforestry, coupled with a reduction in shade tree cover from 80% to 40%, caused only minor quantitative changes in biodiversity and maintained high levels of ecosystem functioning while doubling farmers' net income. However, unshaded systems further increased income by approximately 40%, implying that current economic incentives and cultural preferences for new intensification practices put shaded systems at risk. We conclude that low-shade agroforestry provides the best available compromise between economic forces and ecological needs. Certification schemes for shade-grown crops may provide a market-based mechanism to slow down current intensification trends.