Radha Mohan Singh interview: ‘Doubling farm incomes our priority’

The Prime Minister, in his very first address after taking over, made it clear that this is a government dedicated to gaon, garib, kisan (village, poor and farmer). He has also set a goal for doubling of farmers’ income by 2022. The previous government had no focussed plan for agriculture other than hiking minimum support prices (MSP) or crop loan write-offs. Even there, most farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar or West Bengal never got the official MSPs, just as the Comptroller and Auditor General found gross irregularities in the farm loan waiver scheme. Our approach is more long-term, aimed at enhancing farm productivity, reducing costs, improving price realisations through marketing reforms, and providing adequate protection against crop losses from unforeseen events. All these will lead to increased farmer incomes.

Can you be more specific ?

Let’s first take productivity, for which a primary requirement is delivering water to every field. There are 89 large and medium irrigation projects pending for the last 15-20 years. In this year’s Budget, we have earmarked Rs 12,517 crore for completing 23 of these. Besides, a separate corpus fund of Rs 20,000 crore has been created through NABARD. These will help in expeditious implementation of projects that would ordinarily never have seen light of the day.

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But large projects apart, we are laying equal emphasis on drip and sprinkler irrigation under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana. About 5.6 lakh hectares were brought under micro-irrigation in 2015-16 and we are targeting another 8.3 lakh hectares this fiscal. The objective is to provide universal access to irrigation, while simultaneously ensuring that farmers produce more crop from every drop.

So, your government’s main focus is to boost productivity at the farm level…

Yes, increasing productivity and also bringing down production costs. I would like to highlight two major initiatives. The first is the soil health card scheme. Under it, every farmer will be provided a soil health card indicating the nutrient status of his field. If he knows his soil is deficient in any particular nutrient, it will allow him to make the right choice of fertiliser and also what crop to grow. We have already collected over one crore samples that will enable distribution of five crore soil health cards. In 2016-17, we will collect 1.5 crore samples to prepare another 8 crore soil health cards. All farmers will, thus, get covered. Our aim is to provide soil health cards to every farmer at an interval of two years. It will eventually contribute to balanced fertiliser use and higher crop yields. The second big step has been to make neem-coating mandatory for every grain of urea that is sold. Earlier, an estimated 30 per cent of the urea being produced, on which we incur around Rs 50,000 crore subsidy in the name of the farmer, was getting diverted to chemical factories and for other non-agricultural use. But today, all that has stopped and there is no black-marketing of urea. Not a single question on urea shortages was raised in Parliament in the whole of 2015-16, which has happened for the first time in history! 100 per cent neem-coated urea has also reduced farmers’ usage by 10-15 per cent, as the nitrogen release is slow and more efficient. That again translates into lower cost and higher productivity.

What about agriculture marketing reforms to enable farmers get better prices for their produce?

Each state today has its own APMC (agriculture produce market committee) law, under which you need a separate trading license for every mandi. The worst victim of this is the farmer, since he can sell only to the arhatiyas having the rights to trade in that particular mandi. All efforts to reform this system had failed till we launched the National Agricultural Market scheme to integrate 585 mandis through a common e-trading platform and allow farmers to sell to buyers anywhere in India wanting to transact through this online portal. We have convinced 17 states to reform their APMC Acts to enable three things: e-marketing of farm produce through the NAM platform, a single license to trade in mandis across the state, and a single point for levy of market fees. We expect about 200 mandis to be integrated under the NAM e-trading platform by September, another 200 by March and the balance 185 by March 2018. Unfortunately, some states like Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are yet to come on board.

Farmers have suffered in the last two years from drought and other natural calamities. What is your government doing differently in this regard?

The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, effective from this kharif season will be a game-changer. Farmers will pay the lowest ever premiums of 1.5-2 per cent. The government would fully subsidise the gap between the actuarial premiums and the rate payable by farmers. Moreover, there is no artificial capping of sums insured resulting in lower claims to farmers, as was the case with past crop insurance schemes. Besides, we have substantially stepped-up calamity relief assistance. The UPA government during the four years from 2010-11 to 2013-14 approved a relief of only Rs 12,516.20 crore to states affected by drought and hailstorms. Our government provided Rs 9,018 crore in 2014-15 alone and another Rs 13,497.71 crore last year. Also, earlier farmers could claim relief only when 50 per cent or more of their crop suffered damage from disasters. We have brought down that threshold to 33 per cent, apart from raising the compensation amounts themselves by 50 per cent.