ICAR Acting as Spin-Master for PM Modi’s ‘Doubling Farmers Income’ Claim: AIKS
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Newslaundry Investigation Exposes Claim, Farmers Say Incomes Fell Instead
Below we publish the statement issued by the All India Kisan Sabha, on April 18
IN a recent ground report by digital news platform Newslaundry, the claim by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) that the annual income of 75,000 farmers doubled between 2016 and 2021 has turned out to be a lie. Farmers cited by ICAR, instead of doubled incomes, told Newslaundry about stagnation in their incomes due to rising costs in the reference period. They claimed that no one visited their households to collect costs and income data, and that ICAR’s book was also exaggerating land and livestock ownership, and number of crops grown by the farmer.
The report titled ‘Doubling Farmers’ Income: 75,000 Success Stories’ was released in July 2022 by union minister of agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar. The report is a compilation of survey among ‘progressive farmers’ in states where the ICAR and other government agencies intervened through state-specific plans for doubling farmers’ income announced by PM Modi in 2016 and entrusted Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK) to achieve the target, keeping income in 2016-17 as the benchmark year and 2020-21 as the impact year. The report claimed that net annual incomes had increased between 125 per cent and 271 per cent across states in the reference period.
But as the investigation by Newslaundry in villages of Gurgaon (Haryana) and Noida (Uttar Pradesh) shows, the cited farmers were entirely clueless that such a survey of their costs of production and incomes had even been conducted by officials of KVKs in their area. Officials, in the few cases in which they met the farmer, took their photograph and left (the same were used in the report). All farmers denied any increase in their incomes and claimed that their costs had only risen due to climate change and expensive inputs.
Even basic details like land ownership were exaggerated in most cases. For example, a farmer that owned 8 bighas was reported to be owning 8 acres of land. In another case, a farmer who had sold his lands in 2011 was said to be farming 5 acres of land. Newslaundry even interviewed a ‘farmer’ who turned 18 this year but was reported to be 21 years old and owning 5 acres of land in 2022. His father, the actual farmer with 1.5 acres of land said that his son owns no land and goes to school. Farmers who only grow cereal crops were shown as sowing mushrooms and other vegetables.
The AIKS notes this absurdity with extreme seriousness. It is alarming that a premier research and development (R&D) national institution is being used to manufacture data and act as a mere spin-master for cushioning PM’s bombastic claims. The ICAR must come clean with the dubious claims being made in its report. AIKS appreciates the efforts of Newslaundry in bringing out the truth. In the coming Lok Sabha elections, the people of India will give a fitting rebuff to Narendra Modi.
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