By Ashok Gulati & Ishita Mandla, respectively distinguished professor and research fellow, ICRIER
Victor Hugo once wrote “No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come.” In contemporary India, in the midst of drought in 2015-16, Prime Minister Narendra Modi floated an idea to double farmers’ real incomes by 2022-23. He called it his dream as he knew that if peasantry prospers, India will prosper. Even Mahatma Gandhi said that India lives in villages. But today, the economic condition in villages is not very good. They are still lagging behind in basic infrastructure. To the best of our knowledge, no independent study has been undertaken about the outcome of PM Modi’s idea of doubling farmers’ incomes. However, at ICRIER, we have researched on this issue and our conclusion is that the achievement was less than 50%.
Almost at the same time, in a drought-stricken district (Beed) in Maharashtra, someone else—Mayank Gandhi—floated an idea of Krishikul under the Global Vikas Trust (GVT) to augment farmers’ incomes. He and his team of GVT convinced farmers to shift from traditional crops of soyabean and cotton to fruit crops such as papaya, custard apple, sweet lime, guava, pomegranate, mulberry, bananas, etc. The result has been astounding. As per an independent evaluation study by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in 2024, the per acre income of farmers increased by more than 10 times, from Rs 38,700 to Rs 3.93 lakh within a short transition period. So far, GVT has planted more than 6.7 crore fruit trees (cumulatively) in about 43,000 acres belonging to roughly 30,000 farm families spread across 5,000 villages. Now the issue is—if this can be done in Maharashtra’s Beed, why it can’t be replicated and scaled up to other districts and states? That’s where the role of the state and central governments comes in.
One is reminded of how the milk experiment in the Kheda district of Gujarat by Verghese Kurien was scaled up through the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) by taking loans for Operation Flood from the World Bank. But all this happened as a result of the then-PM Lal Bahadur Shastri spending a night in Kheda talking to farmers till 2 am, and then took a call to set up NDDB with Kurien as its chairman. The rest is history as India ushered in the White Revolution. In 2024-25, India produced roughly 248 million tonnes (MT) of milk, while the second slot went to the US producing about 102 MT. India remains by large the top most producer of milk in the world. And interestingly, it was done largely by small holders with an average herd size of just four cows/ buffaloes.
Our submission: Will PM Narendra Modi have the time to spend a night at GVT’s Krishikul and talk to farmers independently and then take a call on how to convert this experiment into a nation-wide revolution? Here is a brief summary and some lessons of what Krishikul did to augment farmers’ incomes by more than 10 times.
First and foremost was to earn the farmers’ trust by listening to their socio-economic problems, analysing them with compassion, and then using science and advanced farming practices (high-density plantation) for fruit crops. Second, the best quality samplings were procured from diverse nurseries for different fruits. GVT bought saplings on a large scale helped them procure at `30/sapling, which was roughly half the retail price.
Farmers were supplied these saplings at a subsidised price of Rs 15 each. The subsidy was provided through the corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding from various donors, most notably Motilal Oswal Foundation. The Foundation donated `25 crores to build Krishikul’s basic structure spread across 25 acres. It is used to carry out experiments for different crops and train farmers rigorously on how to handle these new crops. Third, the water table in that area, which had receded to about 400 feet below surface level, was recharged through farm ponds, check dams, and most importantly, by putting in several (about 200) Global River Aquashafts—deep vertical recharge shafts constructed in low-lying riverbeds that channel excess surface water safely into underground aquifers.
By filtering silt and debris before percolation, these structures ensure efficient groundwater recharge without contamination. This helped raised groundwater level from 400 feet to about 50 feet at several places, enabling assured irrigation of these fruit crops. Fourth, banks were also roped in to provide credit to these farmers. Their risk was covered by providing a first-loss default guarantee (FLDG) facility of `1 crore. The results of this strategy to implement the idea of augmenting farmers’ incomes was unprecedented. Incomes soared 10 times, triggering economic transformation.
But this is still a beginning of the journey and much more needs to be done. One area is to move from being production-focussed to controlling the entire value chain and accessing the best domestic and global markets for each of these products. It requires aggregation, assaying, grading, packaging, pre-cooling, cold storages, reefer vans, and even processing facilities to add value and stabilise prices of fresh fruit. The target has to be that member farmers must get at least 60% of the consumer’s money spent on these products. Today, the farmers’ share in the same hovers between 25% and 33%.
So, there is still scope to increase farmers’ incomes further once GVT dives deeper into marketing these products directly.
A charitable organisation like the GVT can demonstrate the proof of concept, which they have already done at some scale. Taking it forward to an all-India movement requires the government to step in with large resources, more expertise, and policy changes wherever needed to scale it up under a Centre-state-non-government organisation- business partnership. We hope that the Modi government can undertake it and realise its unfulfilled dream of not just doubling farmers’ incomes but augmenting it manyfold.