Is India's farmer happy? Here's the math

NEW DELHI:The Centre will transfer Rs 6,000 every year to small and marginal farmers in a new Rs 75,000-crore scheme that aims to address unrest among cultivators who have suffered due to adverse weather and weak prices.The funds will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiary farmers in three instalments of Rs 2,000 each, starting retrospectively from December 1.The first instalment would be paid in the weeks ahead and the second may be due around the time of the elections.The PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (PMKISAN) launched on Friday will benefit 120 million farmers with cultivable land of up to 2 hectares, interim finance minister Piyush Goyal said in the Narendra Modi government’s last budget before general elections. The scheme will be applicable for landowners only and not for tenant farmers.The promised payout amounts to an average of Rs 500 per month. This is about 16% of a farmer’s average monthly income from cultivation, which the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) estimated at Rs 3,140 in its rural financial inclusion survey 2015-16.For the most marginal farmer with 0.01 hectare, the cash transfer is comparable with the estimated monthly income of Rs 566 from cultivation, but it is relatively less attractive for those with more land. The monthly income is estimated to be Rs 1,488 from 0.4 hectare, Rs 2,501 for 0.4-1hectare and Rs 4,485 from 1-2 hectares, according to the survey. 67802297 “PM-KISAN would not only provide assured supplemental income to the most vulnerable farmer families, but would also meet their emergent needs especially before the harvest season,” Goyal said.Farmers suffered after three suboptimal monsoons hurt the summer-sown, or kharif crop, while hailstorms devastated wheat and mustard crops in one rabi, or winter-sown, season. Weak commodity prices in the past three years, especially for pulses and vegetables, aggravated their situation.The scheme follows howls of protest from farmers who complain that they bear the brunt of low prices while traders alone benefit from increases. Farmers have joined protests and demanded a relief package and loan waivers. Their anger is widely seen as a major factor in the defeat of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in crucial assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.Congress president Rahul Gandhi criticised the new scheme as grossly inadequate. “Giving them Rs 17 a day is an insult to everything they stand and work for,” he said on Twitter. Farm leaders and experts said the initiative was a move in the right direction but they expected more because of the high cost of cultivation and the mounting burden of loans.“This is a good step. However, landless farmers and farm labourers should also have been included in this scheme. They are under great distress. May be the government will consider them in the next phase as everything can’t be done at one go,” said former agriculture secretary PK Basu.Farmer leader and agriculture expert Devinder Sharma said the amount was not enough to help farmers come out of crisis because the farming community was facing severe stress.“I don’t know how financial support of0 Rs 500 per month will reduce farmer suicides and put them out of agrarian distress,” he said.

from Economic Times http://bit.ly/2G5V7Tp