Profitable Agriculture: Different Government Schemes, Initiatives & Financial Assistance Provided to Farmers

Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar said that the Central Government has adopted various developmental programmes, schemes, reforms and policies that focus on higher incomes for the farmers.

He said all these policies and programs are being supported by higher budgetary allocations, non-budgetary financial resources such as creating Corpus Funds like Micro Irrigation Fund etc. There have been several reforms to unleash the potential, e.g. Formation and Promotion of 10,000 FPOs along with necessary financial support under the Atma Nirbhar Package (Agriculture). Under Atma Nirbhar Bharat special attention is being paid for the creation of infrastructure for which “Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) has been created with a size of Rs. 100,000 crore.

Other special initiatives include Supplementary Income transfers under PM-KISAN; Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna  (PMFBY);  Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY); Increase in Minimum Support Price (MSPs) for all Kharif and Rabi Crops ensuring a minimum of 50% of profit margin on the cost of production, Bee-Keeping; Rashtriya Gokul Mission; Blue Revolution; Interest Subvention Scheme; Kisan Credit Card (KCC) that now offers production loan to even dairy & fishery farmers besides agricultural crops etc.

For environmental sustainability, National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) has been launched in the year 2014-15 which aims to evolve and implement strategies to make Indian agriculture more resilient to the changing climate. The adoption of Drone technologies in agriculture has the potential to revolutionize Indian agriculture. In order to make Drone technology affordable to the farmers and other stakeholders of this sector, financial assistance at 100 % cost of drone together with the contingent expenditure is extended to ICAR/SAU/ State governments/ State government Institutions under Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM).

Government Schemes, Initiatives & Subsidies for Farmers

Below we have mentioned different schemes launched by the Centre for the welfare of farmers and growth of the agriculture sector;

Income support to farmers via PM Kisan Yojana

Through Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, govt. provides Rs. 6000 per year in 3 equal instalments to the farmers. A total of Rs. 1.8 lakh crores have been released so far to more than 11.7 crore farmer families.

Benefit of PMFBY

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana was launched in 2016 to solve the problems of high premium rates for farmers and reduction in sum insured due to capping. In past 5 Years of implementation – 29.29 crore farmers have enrolled and over 8.99 crore (Provisional) farmers have received claims of over Rs. 103903 crore.

Kisan Credit Card Facility

The benefit of concessional institutional credit through KCC at 4 percent interest / annum has also now been extended to Fisheries & Animal Husbandry/Livestock farmers for meeting their short-term working capital needs. Till date, 270.29 lakh new KCC have been issued with sanctioned amount of Rs.2, 88,832 crore.

Promotion of organic farming

Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) was started in 2015-16 to promote organic farming in the country. Two-year achievement under PKVY scheme-19043 clusters have been formed and an area of 3.81 lakh ha has been covered benefitting 9.52 lakh farmers. In addition, under Namami Gange Programme 123620 ha area covered and under natural farming 4.09 lakh ha area covered.

Agricultural Mechanization

Mechanization is extremely important to modernize agriculture and reduce drudgery of farming operations. 13,78,755 numbers of machines and equipments have been provided to farmers on subsidy. 16,007 custom hiring centers, 378 high-tech hubs and 16,064 farm machinery banks have been established.

Use of Drones in Agriculture

The adoption of Drone technologies in agriculture have a potential to revolutionize the Indian agriculture and ensure country’s food security. The Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has released the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for use of drones in pesticide and nutrient application in public domain 21 Dec 2021, which provide concise instructions for effective and safe operations of drones.

In order to make this technology affordable to the farmers and other stakeholders of this sector, financial assistance at 100 % cost of drone together with the contingent expenditure is extended to ICAR/SAU/ State governments/ State government Institutions under Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) for its demonstration on the farmer’s fields.

In order to provide agricultural services through drone application, financial assistance at 40% of the basic cost of drone and its attachments or Rs.4 lakhs, whichever less is also provided for drone purchase by existing and new Custom Hiring Centers (CHCs) under Cooperative Society of Farmers, FPOs and Rural entrepreneurs. The agriculture graduates establishing CHCs are eligible to receive financial assistance at 50% or up to Rs.5 lakhs.

Creation of Agri Infrastructure Fund 

Within a year of the launch of AIF, the scheme mobilized Rs.7700 Crore worth agriculture infrastructure in the country for more than 7300 projects.  With the support of the scheme, various agriculture infrastructures were created and some of the infrastructure is at the final stage of completion. This infrastructure includes 3898 warehouses, 155 assaying units, 136 primary processing units, 135 sorting & grading units, 20 smart & precision agriculture projects and around 3000 other kind of post-harvest management projects and community farming assets.

Promotion of FPOs

Scheme for Formation and Promotion of 10,000 FPOs launched with a total budgetary provision of Rs. 6865 Crore in February 2020. So far, more than 4965 FPO produce clusters have been allocated to respective Implementing Agencies (IAs).

Per Drop More Crop component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana

Per Drop More Crop component of Pradhanmantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY_PDMC) aims to increase water use efficiency at the farm level through Micro Irrigation technologies, i.e., drip and sprinkler irrigation systems. An amount of Rs. 5262.20 crore has been provided to states as central assistance under PMKSY-PDMC during 2019-20 and 2020-21.  For the year 2021-22, an amount of Rs. 4000.00 crore (B.E.) has been allocated for implementation of the scheme and an amount of Rs. 779.18 crore released to States so far.

Soil Health Cards to farmers

Soil Health Card Scheme was launched in 2014-15 to optimize usage of nutrients. Soil health cards have been issued free of cost to nearly 11 crore farmers under a nationwide program.

Micro Irrigation Fund

Micro Irrigation Fund of Rs 5000 crore has been placed with NABARD. In the Budget for 2021-22 the corpus of the fund has been increased to Rs.1000 crores. Projects worth Rs 3970.17 crore covering 12.83 lakh hectares have been approved.

National Bee and Honey Mission (NBHM)

It has been launched in 2020 as part of the AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. Rs.500 crore for the period 2020-2021 to 2022-2023 has been allocated for the sector.

National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) scheme

In 18 states and 03 UTs, 1000 markets have already been integrated with the e-NAM Platform.