Farmers' income no better than farm labourers: SKM

Chandigarh: The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Thursday said that the 77th Round survey of NSO on the Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households (data of 2019) clearly shows that despite the tall claims and promises of doubling farmers' incomes by Modi government, the income of farmers is not much better than labourers.

In a press release issued by farm leaders Balbir Singh Rajewal, Dr Darshan Pal, Gurnam Singh Charuni and others, the SKM said that the income from farming (crop production and livestock farming) on an average at Rs 5380 per month is not significantly higher than income for an agricultural household from other sources like wages and non-farm business (at Rs. 4838 per month).

"This, despite the fact that 92.7% of the agricultural households are engaged in crop production during the Kharif season. Net receipts from crop production at Rs. 3798/month are in fact lower than wage income at Rs. 4063/month, for these agricultural households on an average at all-India level in 2019," they said.

Way back in 2013, as per the NSSO 70th Round survey, the net receipts from cultivation were Rs. 3081/month, whereas wages were Rs 2071 per month. In fifteen states of the country, the net receipts from crop production are lesser than the national average of Rs 3798/month, which in itself works out to a meagre income of around Rs 125 per agricultural household per day. It is clear that farmers of this country are being made into agricultural labourers when it comes to their main source of income.

Surprisingly, Meghalaya has the highest crop production income for agricultural households followed by Punjab and Haryana.

The SKM leaders alleged that the Haryana BJP State President OP Dhankar has made a ridiculous and highly condemnable allegation against the protesting farmers, saying that drug menace in Haryana has increased owing to the farmers' protests.

"This is reprehensible and shows once again the anti-farmer attitude of BJP. We condemn this statement of the Haryana BJP leader and ask him to take back the same", said SKM leaders.