Farmers in Meghalaya Earn the Most: Government in Its Report to Lok Sabha

Few days after the NITI Aayog had published a report that ranked Meghalaya as the fifth poorest state in the country and the poorest state in the Northeastern region. However, a report that was published by the government as a reply on farmers' income in Lok Sabha, that has put Meghalaya ahead of Punjab and Haryana in terms of average monthly income from farming. 

Farmers from Meghalaya are able to earn about Rs 29,000 per month while their counterparts from Punjab and Haryana earn a little over Rs 26,000 and Rs 22,000 respectively. This income report was published specifically as the government’s reply on farmers’ income in Lok Sabha. Farmers in Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal, on the other hand, were found to have the lowest monthly income.

According to the government's response, farmers in these three states earn little over Rs 4,000, Rs 5,000, and Rs 6,000 per month on average. Farmers' average income in India, on the other hand, has been estimated to be around Rs 10,000. 

For the past few years, paddy procured from the state of West Bengal which is one of the largest producing states was comparatively very low compared to the paddy procured from the states of Punjab and Haryana.The information presented in the Lok Sabha comes from the National Statistical Office's Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households and Land and Livestock Holdings of Rural Households survey. This information was from the year 2019. 

The government said in its response that an inter-ministerial committee was formed in April 2016 to look into concerns surrounding "Doubling of Farmers Income" (DFI) and offer measures to accomplish it. 

"The Committee submitted its report to the government in September 2018, containing the strategy for doubling of farmers’ income by the year 2022. After acceptance of the Doubling of Farmers Income (DFI) Committee recommendations, the government constituted an 'empowered body' to review and monitor the progress," the reply added.