
There are several pathways to increase farmers’ income. Important among these are increasing productivity, reducing cost of production, ensuring higher price, making direct income transfers, etc. These pathways are not mutually exclusive and can be used in conjunction with one another. Many of the initiatives taken in the past belonged to the first two categories, that is, increasing the productivity and/or reducing the cost of production. Even some of the programmes since 2014 to increase irrigation, improve soil fertility, and reduce farmers’ risk — such as the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana - (PMKSY), soil health card scheme and the Pradhan Mantri FasalBima Yojana (PMFBY) — fall in this category. However, since 2018, the focus has shifted to the third and fourth components, that is, providing higher prices to farmers and direct income transfers.
Policy Options and Implications: Price or Income Support to Farmers by C S C Sekhar who is with the Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi. His article appeared in Economic and Political Daily, Vol. 57, Issue No. 12, March 19, 2022
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