Hike farmers' cash transfer: Ashok Gulati

Cash transfers to landholding farming families under the PM Kisan scheme should be raised from ₹6,000 per year at present to ₹10,000, noted agricultural economist Dr Ashok Gulati has recommended in ongoing deliberations with the government, saying measures to check food inflation have come at the cost of farmers’ earnings.

- Puja Mehra

The economist’s inputs were earlier taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office ahead of the farmer income support scheme’s roll-out in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Indexing to inflation takes the annual transfer amount to ₹8,000, Dr Gulati told Mint. That apart, there was also a need to compensate for earnings that farmers lost after the government imposed export controls.

While the export controls have helped check foodgrain prices slightly, this has in effect been achieved by transferring resources from farmers to consumers, said Gulati, distinguished professor at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (Icrier).