AIR Spotlight: Government Schemes for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare

AIR Spotlight is an insightful program featured daily on the All India Radio News on air. In this program, many eminent panellists discuss issues of importance which can be quite helpful in IAS exam preparation.

This article is about the discussion on: ‘Government Schemes for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare’.

Participants –

• Harveer Singh: Agriculture Expert
• Arjun J Chaudhary: AIR Correspondent

Context – Initiatives by the GoI for the growth of agriculture and the welfare of the farmers. 

Indian Agriculture Sector 

In FY 2022-23, the agricultural sector recorded a growth of 3.5%.  Apart from meeting domestic demands, India has emerged as a net exporter of agricultural products in recent years. Agricultural exports touched $50.20 Bn in FY 2022-23. The total kharif foodgrain production in the country is estimated at 149.9 million tonnes higher than the average kharif foodgrain production of the previous years.

Important Government Schemes for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare 

The GoI is according high priority for the welfare of farmers and is implementing several farmers’ welfare schemes to revitalise the agriculture sector and to improve their economic conditions. Agriculture is a state subject and the state governments are primarily responsible for the growth and development of the agriculture sector in their respective states. The centre supplements the efforts of states through appropriate policy measures. 

1. PM-Kisan (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) –

• PM-Kisan is a central scheme launched in February 2019 to supplement the financial needs of land-holding farmers.
• A financial benefit of Rs 6000/year in three equal instalments in every fourth month is transferred into the bank accounts of farmers’ families across the country through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.
• The PM-KISAN scheme was initially meant for Small and Marginal Farmers (SMFs) having landholdings of up to 2 hectares but the scope of the scheme was extended to cover all landholding farmers.

      2. Minimum Support Price (MSP) – 

• The MSP is the rate at which the government purchases crops from the farmers. MSP is an integral component of Agriculture Price Policy and it targets to ensure support price to farmers and affordable prices to the consumer.

• The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) recommends MSPs for 22 mandated crops and fair and remunerative prices (FRP) for sugarcane. In addition, MSPs of toria and de-husked coconut are fixed on the basis of the MSPs of rapeseed/mustard and copra respectively.
• The factors considered by CACP for fixing MSP include cost of production, domestic and international prices, demand-supply conditions, inter-crop price parity, and terms of trade between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors.
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) of the Union government takes a final decision on the level of MSPs and other recommendations made by the CACP.

Agriculture Allied Sectors –

Dairy Industry in India –

The dairy industry in India is the largest globally, accounting for about 23% of global milk production. The country produces about 220 million tonnes of milk annually and the value of milk production has surpassed the value of food grains in the country. The dairy sector has greatly aided the expansion of India’s rural economy. Some of the related schemes for the sector include-

1. Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) – It was launched in 2020 with the objective of increasing milk processing infrastructure, providing greater access for unorganised rural milk producers, making available protein-enriched milk products, developing entrepreneurship and promoting exports. 
2. Rashtriya Gokul Mission.
3. National Animal Disease Control Programme – to control livestock diseases, like foot & mouth disease, brucellosis, etc.

Fisheries –

India is the 3rd largest fish-producing country in the world. The sector has exhibited a strong growth of about 8% per year on average. The schemes like Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), and Fishery and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) have aided in the expansion of this sector. FIDF aims to achieve a sustainable growth of 8-9 %, in a move to augment the country’s fish production.

Climate Change & Agriculture – 

El Nino is a climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean that influences climate conditions worldwide. It creates warmer winters, dryer and hotter summers and deficient monsoons (southwest monsoons) in India. The probability of El-Nino has sharply increased this year. Since 1950, there have been 21 El-Nino years and 15 drought events in India. Ten of these drought events were led by El-Nino events.

• The June-to-September monsoon is significant for the overall economy because it accounts for 70 percent of annual rainfall in a country where about half of the farmlands depend on annual showers for irrigation. Agriculture, which employs more than half of the workforce in the world’s most populous country, makes up about 18 percent of India’s economic output.
• Still, not all El Nino years lead to below-normal monsoons. Even during some El Nino years, rainfall during the southwest monsoon was normal owing to favourable offsetting factors. 
• Given the uncertainty of the location of impact and the near certainty that the impact will be a drop in monsoon and a rise in average temperature, the following steps can be taken to mitigate the risks-

1. Crop diversification and the cultivation of drought-resistant crops
2. The promotion of water conservation and management practices 
3. Provision of better weather forecasting and early warning systems
4. Improvement of access to credit and insurance options for farmers

• About 50% of the crop production in India depends on the monsoon. Irrigation is the most important input for agriculture production. The Per Drop More Crop (PDMC) component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) focuses on enhancing water use efficiency at the farm level through micro-irrigation technologies viz Drip and Sprinkler Irrigation Systems.
  • Water use efficiency of Micro Irrigation including drip irrigation is as high as 80 to 95% in comparison to only 30-50% in conventional flood irrigation resulting in a considerable amount of saving irrigation water.

Conclusion – It is important to develop and promote climate-resistant technologies in agriculture which would help the regions prone to extreme weather conditions like droughts, floods, frost, heat waves, etc. to cope with such extremes. With the help of technological interventions, the negative impact of climate change on agricultural production can be dealt with effectively.

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