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(The Gist of Kurukshetra) EMPOWERING FARMERS THROUGH INITIATIVES IN AGRICULTURE [SEPTEMBER-2019]

(The Gist of Kurukshetra) EMPOWERING FARMERS THROUGH INITIATIVES IN AGRICULTURE

[SEPTEMBER-2019]

EMPOWERING FARMERS THROUGH INITIATIVES IN AGRICULTURE

Introduction

The new Government, at its very first Cabinet meeting, had announced a Rs. 10,000 crore pension scheme for 5 crore farmers. Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Pension Yojana, small and marginal farmers will get a minimum fixed pension of Rs. 3,000 per month on attaining the age of 60 years. This is a voluntary and contributory pension scheme for small and marginal farmers across the country, with the entry age of 18-40 years. The Central Government will match the contribution from the subscribers.
The Government has announced the PM-KISAN scheme under which it is offering Rs. 6,000 to 14.5 crore farmers in a year. During the last five years, for providing affordable loans to farmers, the amount of interest subvention has been doubled and the crop loan to farmers increased to Rs. 11.68 lakh crore.
A 2 percent interest subvention was introduced for farmers engaged in fisheries and animal husbandry, with loans to be availed via Kisan Credit Card. Those who repay the loan timely will be eligible to get an additional 3 percent interest subvention.

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana:

As half of the area under cultivation in the country is rainfed, there is a need to expand the area having access to water. Agriculture consumes 60 percent of available water resources. With about 47 per cent of agricultural land area under irrigation, schemes like Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) have made a great effort to bring in more area under irrigated agriculture. In 2017, approximately 1484 crores have been sanctioned under PMKSY scheme, aiming to cover 39 lakh hectare (ha) of land. This trend needs to continue.
The micro irrigation scheme under the PMKSY has added 6 lakh ha in the current year against a target of 11 lakh ha. The scheme is beneficial for small and marginal farmers and in geographies where water sources are available. However, the need for strong water management techniques has become more important.
Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana was started to address the challenges of the Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) and look at the water needs of agriculture in a holistic way. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana is in place to ensure 'more crop per drop' which will cover 28.5 lakh hectare area under irrigation. Rs. 50,000crore is earmarked for ensuring that every farm gets water. Rs. 5,000 crore fund for micro-irrigation has been made available while there has been an encouragement for farmers to install solar pumps for irrigation.
At present, about 14 percent of gross value added in agriculture is invested in the sector. This includes 78.1 per cent investments by farmers and 19.4 per cent by public sector.
The private sector constitutes less than 2.5 per cent share in total investments in agriculture.
In order to transform agriculture, corporate investments must be increased substantially. The Union Budget 2019 details that total allocations for agriculture and allied sector in the Budget have been increased to Rs. 1,51,500 crore, from Rs 86,600 crore (Revised Budget Estimate) in 2019
This does not include fertiliser subsidy which has been raised by 14 per cent to Rs. 80,000 crore. There is 6- 50 per cent increase in core and central schemes for crops, livestock and fishery and for price intervention and MSP operations for crops other than wheat and paddy.

Increasing Production: Soil Health Card

To ensure that the farmer reaps good yields, focus on strengthening sowing-related activities is imperative. The Government has taken various steps in this regard. Considering that the health of the soil plays a fundamental role in agriculture, the Government has dispatched more than 13 crore Soil Health Cards from 2015 to 2018. Soil Health Cards carry crop-specific recommendations for nutrients and fertilizers to help farmers improve their productivity.

Neem Coated Urea:

Neem Coated Urea (NCU) is a fertilizer and an agriculture scheme initiated by the Government of India to boost the growth of wheat and paddy, and curb the black marketeering and hoarding of urea. Urea which is coated with neem tree seed oil is called neem-coated urea. In January 2015, the urea manufacturers were mandated by the Government to increase their neem coated urea production from 35 per cent to 75 per cent.
Government of India has made use of neem-coated urea mandatory. It increases the efficiency of 10 per cent nitrogen usage compared to uncoated urea thereby saving 10 percent urea.
Government is also working to increase Urea production as it has revived the defunct fertilizer plants and also set up new plants. Since the Government has implemented 100 per cent neem coating of Urea, it has resulted in improving the soil quality. There is a special arrangement of Rs. 10,000 crore to clear fertilizer subsidy.

Credit for Farmers:

The Government has taken important policy initiatives to address the issue of farm credit and save farmers from being exploited at the hands of informal credit sources such as moneylenders.
Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is the biggest risk cover and safety net provided by the government. Under the interest subvention scheme, short-term crop loans up to 3 lakh with the interest rate of 7 per cent per annum up to one year has been made available.

Marketing the Farmers Produce(e-NAM):

The Government's policy follows the next logical step after supporting the farmer at sowing time, which is to help farmers to get the right price for their produce. In July 2018, Government approved the historic MSP hike for Kharif crops to 1.5 times the cost, which will provide farmers a profit margin of 50 per cent over the cost of production.
National Agriculture Market scheme known as e-NAM has integrated 585 markets across 16 States and 2 Union territories. More than 164.53 lakh tonnes of farm commodities have been transacted on e-NAM and more than 87 lakh farmers have been registered. Thus, it is cutting down the middlemen in agriculture trading to facilitate farmer get his due. 22,000 Rural Haats will turn into Gramin Agriculture Market which will benefit 86 per cent small farmers. Large investment in warehousing and cold chains to prevent post-harvest crop losses and value addition through food processing are also giving the farmers the essential edge on the market. To address the price volatility of perishable items like tomato, potato and onion 'Operation Greens' has been put in place.

Operation Green

The fluctuating prices for key crops such as tomato, potato and onion (TOP) has resulted in the Government announcing Rs. 500 crores for initiating Operation Green. It aims to stabilise the demand supply situation for these crops and promote initiatives to control disparity.
The situation requires fundamental changes beginning from crop variety selection (table variety v/s processing varieties), procurement mechanism, post-harvest handling and storage, processing of produce, market development, logistics services and distribution However, it remains to be seen how it will impact an average farmer. Take the example of tomato, India produces around 19 million tonnes of tomatoes every year.
Leading producing States like Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh which contribute to around 30 per cent of the total production of India should innovate on implementation of these solutions. Another important aspect which needs to be considered is the development of large scale infrastructure to support the mass storage and movement of perishable items. Currently, the cold chain network needs to be more aggregated. Technology innovation for implementing low cost and durable multimodal solutions is one of the key challenges here.

Micro Irrigation Fund (MIF)

A dedicated MIF created with NABARD has been approved with an initial corpus of Rs. 5000 crore (Rs. 2000 crore for 2018-19 and Rs. 3000 crore for 2019-20) for encouraging public and private investments in Micro irrigation. The main objective of the fund is to facilitate the States in mobilizing the resources for expanding coverage of Micro Irrigation.
MIF would not only facilitate States in incentivizing and mobilizing resources for achieving the target envisaged under PMKSY-PDMC, but also in bringing additional coverage through special and innovative initiatives by State Governments. An Advisory Committee has been set up to provide policy direction and ensure effective planning, coordination and monitoring of the Micro Irrigation Fund.

Agriculture Contingency Plan

Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), ICAR has prepared district level Agriculture Contingency Plans in collaboration with State Agricultural Universities using a standard template to tackle the monsoon situations leading to drought and floods, extreme events (heat waves, cold waves, frost, hailstorms, cyclones) affecting crops, livestock and fisheries (including horticulture).
Total 614 district agriculture contingency plans are placed in the 'farmer portal' of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India (http://www.farmer.gov.in) and also in the ICAR / CRIDA website (http://www.crida.in) for downloading the full plan by stakeholders for operational use.

Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY)

It is implemented with a view to promote organic farming in the country. To improve soil health and organic matter content and increase net income of the farmer so as to realise premium prices. Under this scheme, an area of 5 lakh acre is targeted to be covered through 10,000 clusters of 50 acre each, from the year 2015-16 to 2017-18.
Focus on Allied Sectors
As noted earlier, the focus has been laid on allied agriculture activities to boost farmers' income. Corpus of Rs 10,000 crore has been set up to create infrastructure in fisheries, aquaculture and animal husbandry. Integrated Development and Management of Fisheries with an outlay of Rs 3000 crore, the establishment of 20 Gokul Grams are some of the examples in this regard.

Growth in Production

There are ample indications to suggest that the agriculture policy implementation has been yielding results. Agriculture production has touched a new high in 2017-18 with 279.51 million tonnes of foodgrain production. The extent of the buffer stock of pulses increased from 1.5 lakh tonnes to 20 lakh tonnes. Milk production has increased by 18.81 per cent in 2016-17 as compared to 2013-14.

The Future Landscape

Digital Innovation in agriculture is one of the major trends to look out for economic growth. Digital agriculture is the use of new and advanced technologies, integrated into one system, to enable farmers and other stakeholders within the agriculture value chain to improve food production. The resulting combined data is analysed and interpreted so the farmer can make more informed and appropriate decisions.
Currently, the Government is striving hard to streamline the policies, creating the necessary infrastructure and commercializing this innovation for the betterment of the masses. Many organizations are making strong moves in order to create incentives for adoption of this innovation in agriculture sector. The innovation in agriculture and food systems in the digital age like 3D Printing, Robots, Drones, Sensors, and Block chain are playing a significant role in helping farmers to generate profitable outcomes.

Conclusion

This role of innovation in agriculture is transforming the infrastructure development space and supply chain management. An extra plus is being added to quality, traceability, logistics and distribution, and other areas of the value chain of the Indian agriculture.