BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State Government claims to have doubled the income of farmers, the monthly average income of farmers remains one of the lowest in the country at Rs 1,407 per family. Quoting the 70th report of National Sample Survey (NSS), Agriculture Minister Pradip Maharathi admitted that except West Bengal, where monthly income of a farmer’s family remains Rs 979, all other states are way ahead of Odisha in this regard.
In a written reply to a question from Dilip Ray (BJP), the Minister said the monthly income of a farmer’s family is highest in Punjab at Rs 10,862 followed by Rs 7,867 in Haryana, Rs 4,930 in Karnataka, Rs 3,347 in Chhattisgarh, Rs 3,856 in Maharashtra, Rs 3,531 in Kerala, Rs 3,138 in Rajasthan and Rs 4,211 in Assam. The Minister said average monthly income of a farmer from agriculture and allied sectors is Rs 4,976 in Odisha compared to Rs 18,059 in Punjab.
While the monthly income of farmer from agriculture and allied sectors in Haryana is Rs 14,434, in Kerala it is Rs 11,888. Income of farmers in other states is, Rs 8,832 in Karnataka, Rs 7,386 in Maharashtra, Rs 7,350 in Rajasthan and Rs 7,926 in Gujarat.However, the State Government remained silent about farmers income in the Agriculture Budget presented in the Assembly on March 23. Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera said in the Agriculture Budget that reducing vulnerability of agriculture in the face of climate change, increasing production and productivity and ensuring procurement and minimum support price (MSP) are important issues which need to be addressed by all stakeholders to raise the income levels of farmers.
Welcoming the announcement of the Centre in the Union Budget of 2018-19 to enhance MSP to one and half times of the cost of production, the Minister demanded that it needs to be assessed on realistic basis for fixing MSP. He requested the Centre to devise credible mechanism for ensuring MSP for different crops.