A farmer in Delhi earned Rs 14,079 from cultivation in 2012-13, which, in real terms, was 12.6 per cent lower than what he earned in 2002-03, highlights a report by the Centre’s Doubling of Farmers Income Committee. Farm income dip was also registered in West Bengal (4.2 per cent), Bihar (1.4 per cent) and Uttarakhand (3.4 per cent), along with 13 others.
Even the national average income from cultivation increased by just 3.8 per cent over the entire decade, when the overall farm sector grew by 3 per cent annually. Little wonder, the number of farmers in the country reduced by 8.5 million between 2001 and 2011. At the same time, farm labourers rose by 37.5 million.
So what does this mean? The report clearly establishes that states with lower farm income have higher incidence of rural poverty. “Thus, it is important to augment agricultural incomes to reduce rural poverty,” says the report.