Social Security Scheme for Farmers

Social Security Scheme for Farmers

The Government is implementing a number of schemes to help the farmers in increasing their productivity by reducing cost of cultivation, achieving higher yield per unit and by realizing remunerative prices. Some of the important new initiatives in this context are:

(i) Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme by which the farmers can know the major and minor nutrients available in their soils which will ensure judicious use of fertiliser application and thus save money of farmers. The balanced use of fertiliser will also enhance productivity and ensure higher returns to the farmers.

(ii) Neem Coated Urea is being promoted to regulate urea use, enhance its availability to the crop and reduce cost of fertilizers application. The entire quantity of domestically manufactured urea is now neem coated.

(iii) Parampragat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) is being implemented with a view to promoting organic farming in the country. This will improve soil health and organic matter content and increase net income of the farmer so as to realise premium prices.

(iv) The Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) is being implemented to expand cultivated area with assured irrigation, reduce wastage of water and improve water use efficiency.

(v) In addition, the Government is also implementing several Centrally Sponsored Schemes - National Food Security Mission (NFSM); Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH); National Mission on Oilseeds & Oilpalm (NMOOP); National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA); National Mission on Agricultural Extension & Technology (NMAET); National Crop Insurance Programme (NCIP); Unified National Agriculture Markets; and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY).

(vi) The Government undertakes procurement of wheat and paddy under its ‘MSP operations’. In addition, Government implements Market Intervention Scheme

(MIS) for procurement of agricultural and horticultural commodities not covered under the Minimum Price Support Scheme on the request of State/UT Government. The MIS is implemented in order to protect the growers of these commodities from making distress sale in the event of bumper crop when the prices tend to fall below the economic level/cost of production. Losses, if any, incurred by the procuring agencies are shared by the Central Government and the concerned State Government on 50:50 basis (75:25 in case of North-Eastern States). Profit, if any, earned by the procuring agencies is retained by them.

It is a priority of the Government to work towards enabling social security protection for citizens, especially from the economically weaker and vulnerable sections. In accordance with this priority, the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojna (PMSBY) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) were recently launched to address the areas of life and accident risk, and old age income security. The Rashtriya Swastha Bima Yojana (RSBY) is also operational to provide health insurance cover to persons living below the poverty line etc. The Central Government has also initiated creation of a Senior Citizen Welfare Fund through the use of certain unclaimed amounts under various specified schemes. This fund will be used to subsidize the premiums of vulnerable groups such as old age pensioners, BPL card-holders, small and marginal farmers and others.

The proposed new National Crop Insurance Scheme will protect the interest of farmers with a broader coverage towards crop losses and other such natural calamities. This is an intervention to cover the risks involved in farming.

Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI), through its various schemes, has been providing assistance to various agriculture related industries.

This information was given by the Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Sh. Radha Mohan Singh in Rajya Sabha today.

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Plan to Boost Production of Pulses

Pulses in India are imported by private sector and not by Government. There are no restrictions on import of pulses. There is no import duty on import of pulses. However, Government imported 5000 tons of pigeon pea (tur) for taking up limited market intervention.

The Government promotes production of pulses in the country through National Food Security Mission (NFSM) which covers 622 districts in 27 states. Around 50% of total allocation of NFSM is made for pulses for various interventions like demonstration of improved technology, distribution of quality seeds of new varieties, integrated pest management, water saving devices and capacity building of farmers. An additional allocation of Rs.440 crore has been made for rabi and summer pulses during 2015-16. In order to increase production of pulses in the eastern India, pulses have been included in the scheme Bringing Green Revolution in Eastern India (BGREI) also from 2015-16. A special programme for demonstration of new varieties of pulses seeds through Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) has been initiated from rabi 2015-16.The Government has substantially increased minimum support price (MSP) for pulses in the current year.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Sh. Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundaria in Rajya Sabha today.

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Rabi Crops Sowing Crosess 442 Lakh Hactare

As per preliminary reports received from the States, the total area sown under Rabi crops as on 11^thDecember, 2015 stands to 442.33 lakh hectares.

Wheat has been sown/transplanted in 202.28 lakh hectares, pulses in 114.51 lakh hectares, coarse cereals in 48.92 lakhhectares. Area sown under oilseeds is 65.68 lakh hectares and Rice is 10.94 lakh hectares.

The area sown so far and that sown during last year this time is as follows:

Lakh hectare

Crop	Area sown in 2015-16	Area sown in 2014-15
Wheat	202.28	241.91
Pulses	114.51	115.34
Coarse Cereals	48.92	45.42
Oilseeds	65.68	71.18
Rice	10.94	12.85
Total	442.33	486.69

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Implementation of National Agriculture Market Project

The National Agriculture Market (NAM) e-platform has been envisaged to bring in operational efficiency and transparency in the mandi operations and to enhance market access for the farmers and eliminate information asymmetry. In order to provide guidance to the States/ Union Territories (UTs) for integration of their regulated wholesale markets with the NAM e-platform, the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare has had workshops from time to time for the States/UTs, one of which was the visit of State Ministers and officials to Hubli, Karnataka on 9th July, 2015 to witness first hand the functioning of e-marketing platform. The Department has also circulated a detailed template to enable States/UTs to prepare their Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) to submit their proposals thereon to the Government. Further to facilitate integration, the implementing agency i.e. Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) will engage a Strategic Partner (SP) which shall, inter-alia, train all participants (farmers, commission agents, traders, employees of the Market, data entry operators, etc.) in the market where the NAM is adopted, so that every participant is able to operate the NAM for its business requirement. Further, the SP will also provide one year local support to each participating mandi and set up a help desk to support day to day operations and to answer queries in the State language.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Sh. Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundaria in Rajya Sabha today.

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Subsidy to Farmers for Purchasing Agricultural Implements

Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW) provides Subsidy to farmers through State Governments under different schemes, such as Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM), National Food Security Mission (NFSM), National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm (NMOOP), Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY) for purchase of various agricultural equipments and machines. However, the Department schemes does not provide soft loans for purchasing agricultural implements.

DAC&FW has identified equipments and machines for small and marginal farmers and provide subsidy on such agricultural equipments which helps in increasing agriculture production and productivity, improving utilization efficiency of costlier inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and irrigation water, besides reducing human drudgery & cost of cultivation.

The scheme of Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization has been launched by the Department w.e.f. 2014-15 with the objective of increasing the reach of farm mechanization to small and marginal farmers; Promoting ‘Custom Hiring Centres’, Creating hubs for hi-tech & high value farm equipments and creating awareness among farmers through demonstration and capacity building activities. Farm Machinery Training & Testing Institutes provides training to the farmers on operation, repair and maintenance of agricultural machines and equipments.

During the year 2014-15 and 2015-16, the funds allocated/released to Government of Punjab for farm mechanization under different schemes is as under:

(Rs. in lakhs)