Poor data hampering farmer income count

New Delhi: The lack of data on cultivators and their income from other sources has become a hindrance in determining whether farmers’ income has actually doubled or not, NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand said, pointing out that they are earning more from non-agricultural sources.

The NITI Aayog member further said that prices of agricultural commodities can’t be fixed by a law as it has serious implications, which are neither in the interest of the agriculture sector nor individual farmers.

“The government had fixed the goal of doubling farmers’ income so that we make more efforts. There is a need for this assessment, where we are in terms of this goal. But the required data is not available with us,” Chand said in an interview.

In 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government set a highly ambitious target of doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022. An inter-ministerial committee on ‘Doubling of Farmers’ Income’ was set up in April 2016 to recommend strategies to achieve this goal.

The committee submitted its report in September 2018. After acceptance of the panel’s recommendations, the government has set up an ‘Empowered Body’ to review and monitor the progress. Elaborating on the issue, Chand said: “We do not have data on a number of cultivators...because when you want to calculate the income of farmers, you need to know the denominator”.

The eminent agriculture economist further said that the government does not have data on the income of farmers from non-farm sources after 2018-19. Stating that in 2018-19, small and marginal farmers were earning more income from non-agriculture sources, he said.