Modi Urges Farmers To Look Beyond Wheat, Rice And Sugarcane For Higher Incomes

India’s farming story has long been built around three crops: wheat, rice and sugarcane. On 12 November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked farmers to look further afield, promoting milk, fish, honey, solar power and food processing as fresh routes to higher earnings.

Speaking at the Kisan Tak Bharat Agriculture Conference in New Delhi, he argued for diversifying farm incomes, cutting reliance on a small group of crops and easing the strain on natural resources. “Farmer brothers should not remain dependent only on wheat, rice, and sugarcane,” Modi said.

Resource pressure sits behind the call. Rice and sugarcane are water-intensive crops, and growing them has weighed on groundwater reserves. According to a recent roundtable, Haryana extracts around 137 per cent of the groundwater it recharges each year.

Why Crop Diversification Matters For Indian Farmers

Modi said soil-testing laboratories had risen from a few hundred in 2014 to more than 8,400. Soil testing can help farmers choose crops better suited to the water and soil conditions on their land.

He wants farmers to add allied activities, including dairy, poultry, fisheries and beekeeping, alongside crop cultivation.

Citing growth in these sectors, the Prime Minister said milk production had climbed nearly 70 per cent in a decade, while egg production had risen nearly 90 per cent. Fish production, he said, had more than doubled, and honey output had grown from around 80,000 tonnes to 1.5 lakh tonnes. Horticulture production had increased from 280 million tonnes to over 350 million tonnes.

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He added that free vaccination against foot-and-mouth disease had covered animals belonging to more than 8 crore farmers. These are figures cited by the Prime Minister and have not been independently recalculated.

Solar Pumps, PM-KUSUM Scheme And Farm Income

Nearly 12 lakh solar pumps have been distributed under PM-KUSUM, the scheme promoting solar-powered irrigation. Besides lowering electricity costs, farmers can potentially earn by supplying surplus power to the grid.

“This revolution has turned the Annadata of the country into an Urjadata,” Modi said.

He also highlighted 10,000 farmer producer organisations (FPOs), which bring farmers together and link them with food processors and export markets.

Fertiliser Subsidies And Natural Farming In India

Modi said India had spent Rs 16 lakh crore over 12 years to keep fertilisers affordable. A bag of DAP costing around Rs 5,000 is available to farmers for Rs 1,300, he said, while urea priced at around Rs 3,000 internationally sells for less than Rs 300.

Cheap urea has a downside, however. At a panel discussion, Dr SK Chaudhary, director general of the Fertilisers Association of India, said farmers understood the damage caused by excessive urea use but kept buying it because it was cheap and readily available.

Modi also encouraged farmers to adopt chemical-free natural farming.

Dairy, fisheries, beekeeping and solar power could diversify farm incomes, but each requires investment, storage, infrastructure and reliable buyers.