Victor Hugo once wrote, “No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come.” In contemporary India, in the midst of drought in 2015-16, Prime Minister Narendra Modi floated an idea to double farmers’ real incomes by 2022-23. He called it his dream as he knew that if farmers prosper, India will prosper. Even Mahatma Gandhi said that India lives in its villages. But today, the economic condition in villages is not very good. They are lagging in basic infrastructure. To the best of our knowledge, no independent study has been done about the outcomes of doubling farmers’ incomes. However, at ICRIER, we have researched this issue, and our conclusion is that the achievement was less than 50 per cent.
Around the same time as the PM envisaged doubling farmer incomes, in the drought-stricken district of Beed in Maharashtra, Mayank Gandhi floated the idea of Krishikul under the Global Vikas Trust (GVT) to augment farmers’ incomes. They convinced farmers to shift from traditional crops — soyabean and cotton — to fruit crops such as papaya, custard apple, sweet lime, guava, pomegranate, mulberry, bananas, etc. The results have been astounding. As per an independent evaluation study by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in 2024, the per-acre income of farmers increased by more than 10 times, from Rs 38,700 to Rs 3.93 lakh, within a short transition period. So far, GVT has planted more than 6.7 crore fruit trees (cumulatively) in about 43,000 acres belonging to roughly 30,000 farm families spread across 5,000 villages. If this can be done in Beed, why can’t it be replicated and scaled up to other districts and states? That’s where the state and central governments come in.
One is reminded of how the milk experiment in Kheda district, Gujarat, by Verghese Kurien was scaled up through the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) by taking World Bank loans for Operation Flood. But all this happened as a result of the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri spending a night in Kheda district and talking to farmers till 2 am. He then took the call to set up the NDDB with Kurien as its chairman. The rest is history. India ushered in the White Revolution. In 2024-25, India was the largest producer of milk in the world at roughly 248 million tonnes (MT), while the second slot went to the US, producing about 102 MT. And interestingly, this has been done largely by small holders with an average herd size of just four cows/buffaloes.
Our submission: Will Prime Minister Narendra Modi have the time to spend a night at GVT’s Krishikul, talk to farmers independently, and then take a call on how to convert this experiment into a nation-wide revolution? Here is a brief summary and some lessons of what Krishikul did to augment farmers’ incomes by more than 10 times (10X).
First, the task was to earn the trust of farmers by listening to their socio-economic problems, analysing them with compassion, and then using science and advanced farming practices (high-density plantation) for fruit crops. Second, the best quality samplings were procured from diverse nurseries for different fruits. Large-scale buying of saplings by GVT helped them procure these at Rs 30/sapling, which was roughly half the retail price. Farmers were supplied these saplings at a subsidised price of Rs 15 each. The subsidy was provided through CSR funding from various donors, most notably Motilal Oswal Foundation. The Foundation donated Rs 25 crore to build the basic structure of Krishikul on a 25-acre piece of land. It is used to carry out experiments of different crops, and also undertake rigorous training of farmers on how to handle these new crops.
Third, the water table in the area, which had receded to about 400 feet below surface level, was recharged through farm ponds, check dams, and most importantly by putting in about 200 Global River Aquashafts — deep vertical recharge shafts constructed in low-lying riverbeds that channel excess surface water safely into underground aquifers. By filtering silt and debris before percolation, these structures ensure efficient groundwater recharge without contamination. This helped raise the groundwater level from 400 feet to about 50 feet at several places, enabling assured irrigation of these fruit crops.
Fourth, banks were also roped in to provide credit to these farmers. Their risk was covered by providing a first-loss default guarantee (FLDG) facility of Rs 1 crore. The results of this strategy to implement the idea of augmenting farmers’ incomes was unprecedented. Incomes soared 10 times (10X), triggering economic transformation.
But this is still a beginning, and much more needs to be done. One area to focus on is moving from production to controlling the entire value chain, and accessing the best domestic and global markets for each of these products. This requires aggregation, assaying, grading, packaging, pre-cooling, cold storage, reefer vans, and even processing facilities to add value and stabilise prices of fresh fruit. The target has to be that member farmers must get at least 60 per cent of the consumer’s rupee spent on these products. Today, the farmers’ share in the consumer’s rupee hovers between 25 to 33 per cent. So, there is still scope to increase farmers’ incomes further once the GVT dives deeper into the marketing of these products directly.
A charitable organisation like the GVT (Krishikul) can demonstrate the proof of concept, which they have already done at some scale. Turning this into an all-India movement requires the government to step in with large resources, more expertise, and policy changes wherever needed to scale it up under a centre-state-NGO-business partnership. We hope that the Modi government can undertake it and realise its unfulfilled dream of not just doubling farmers’ incomes but augmenting it manifold.
Gulati is Distinguished Professor, and Mandla is a Research Fellow at ICRIER. Views are personal
Share
