By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, DEC 19, 2017: THE Government acknowledged the roadmap laid out by the NITI Aayog, for bringing about reforms in the agriculture sector and for doubling the income of farmer's by 2022. To such end, the roadmap had identified seven objectives, namely - i) increase in productivity of crops, ii) increase in production of livestock, iii) improvement in efficiency of input use (cost saving), iv) increase in crop intensity, v) diversification towards high value crops, vi) improved price realization by farmers and vii) shift of cultivators to non-farm jobs.

Thereby, such policy paper was shared with the States and UTs for devising a relevant strategy, so as to realize the goal of doubling farmer's income by 2022. Besides, an Inter-Ministerial Committee was also constituted for recommending a suitable strategy for achieving this objective. Since agriculture is a State subject, the State Governments are primarily responsible for the growth and development of agriculture sector in their respective States. The role of Central Government is to supplement the efforts of States through appropriate policy measures and budgetary support. The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) conducted 'Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of Agricultural Households' during NSS 70th round (January 2013- December 2013) in the rural areas of the country with reference to the agricultural year July 2012- June 2013. However, the information pertaining to unemployed farmers in the country was unavailable in the data collected during such survey.

Specific interventions were also being worked out for promoting ancillary activities, like bee-keeping and finalizing farm sector programmes under the 'Skill India' programme to improve employment opportunities and to reduce the heavy dependence on the agriculture sector. This information was shared by the Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Mr. Parshottam Rupala, in Lok Sabha today.