Additional Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, P K Mishra has said that the government is making utmost efforts with an integrated approach and has initiated multiple reforms to achieve the ambitious goal of doubling farmers' income by the year 2022. He also emphasized the need to analyse as to 'why the past initiatives could not accomplish the desired results' in the agriculture sector. He added that for the first time, the present government has ushered in a paradigm shift in the approach, from growth of production to increase farmers' income.
According to Mishra, some of the initiatives taken to address price and yield risks in the last four years include setting up of electronic National Agriculture Market (eNAM), upgradation of rural haats, new scheme Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA), Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. He noted that this is a major shift in the approach -- a clear focus on farmer and farmer welfare rather than simply production and productivity.
For this purpose, he said that a holistic strategy for the agriculture sector was visualized and informed that efforts are being made to follow this with an integrated approach by initiating multiple reforms and programmes with an overall objective of doubling farmers' income. He noted that in February 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said farmers' income would be doubled by 2022 to mark 75 years of India's independence. He said “Policymakers and practitioners need to look at how one could address the farmers' risk -- that affects his income and welfare and linking activities of non-agriculture sector. This is also an area of agriculture research.”