Can Farmers' Income Be Doubled?

 

- Richard Mahapatra

A "NEW INDIA” is the latest national agenda. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his fourth Independence Day speech made an appeal with his trademark gesture of both hands pointing towards the gathering: “A new India that would fulfil the dreams of the young and women, and see the income of farmers double.” Modi first promised doubling farmers’ income by 2022 two years ago. This is the first time he has added it to his “New India” agenda. At a time when farmers are found more on the streets than in farms protesting for better pricing and relief from the agrarian crisis, it is a promise everybody would desperately pitch for.