Strategies for Doubling of Income of Smallholder Farmers from Demand Perspective

Based on the secondary sources of data, the study attempts to examine the scope of doubling the income from demand perspective and to recommend different strategies for improving the income of smallholder farmers. The number of holdings, area of smallholder farmers had increased from 81.8 per cent to 85 per cent, 36.6 per cent to 43.4 per cent of total holdings and area respectively from 2000-01 to 2010-11 and during the same period the average holding of smallholder farmers decreased from 0.63 to 0.605 ha. Due to uneconomic holdings a large percentage of smallholder farmers are below the poverty line. It is the national priority to enhance their income so that they can escape from poverty. The dream of our Prime Minister is to double the farmers’ income from the base year 2015-16 to 2022-23. The annual growth rate of urban population in India was 2.324 per cent in 2017. The disposable per capita income of urban population will rise to Rs. 239000 (at real price of 2008) upto 2030, i.e., at 6.4 per cent of growth rate. With the rise in per capita income of urban households the demand for consumption of fruits and vegetables, other agricultural products, milk (liquid), eggs, fish, chicken (meat) etc. will rise. There is also evidence that per capita annual consumption of vegetables, milk (liquid), eggs and chicken had risen from the year 1993-94 to 2011-12 due to increase in urban population and income. Thus smallholder farmers can enhance their income by diversifying high value crops like vegetables and allied products.