While talking about the income of farmers, the PM stated that it is his dream to see farmers double their income by 2022, when the country completes 75 years of independence. The time horizon to reach his dream is very clear in his statement. It is obvious that he is referring to a doubling of farmer income of the agricultural year 2015-16 by the agricultural year 2022-23. The budget speech creates slight confusion about the period for doubling farmers’ income. The FM’s speech first mentions the “focus on doubling farmers’ income in five years” and then, while elaborating on this, he says, “Government will, therefore, reorient its interventions in the farm and non-farm sectors to double the income of the farmers by 2022.” It is evident that both the PM as well as the FM are setting the target of doubling farmers’ income by the year 2022, which is seven years away from the current year. And, if anything is to be doubled by the year 2022-23, it will require annual growth of 10.4 per cent, and not 14.8 per cent, as reported in the media.
