The Centre vowed to double farmers’ income between 2015 and 2022, but by the midway point, farm families in Jharkhand actually saw their average monthly income drop by about 30%.
In its report on the demand for grants for agriculture submitted to the Lok Sabha on Thursday, a parliamentary standing committee asked why the Centre remained a “mute spectator” while farmers’ income declined in four States between 2015-16 and 2018-19. Over the same period, nationwide farm income rose 27%, which is still well short of the trajectory needed to achieve the goal of doubling income this year.
The Committee recommended that the Department of Agriculture and Family Welfare “should formulate a Special Team to figure out the reasons for falling farmers’ income in those States and take some course corrective measures so that the doubling of farmers income is not lost sight of.”
