Flagship Agricultural Schemes

A brief of major schemes/initiatives launched by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in recent years 

1. Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PMKISAN) 

PM-KISAN is a central sector scheme launched on 24th February 2019 to supplement financial needs of land holding farmers, subject to exclusions. Under the scheme, financial benefit of Rs. 6000/- per year is transferred in three equal four-monthly installments into the bank accounts of farmers’ families across the country, through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode. Till Now, Rs. 2.81 lakh crores have been transferred through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to more than 11 crores beneficiaries (Farmers) through various instalments. 

2. Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maan Dhan Yojana (PM-KMY) 

In order to provide financial support and security to the most vulnerable farmer families, Government launched Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maandhan Yojana w.e.f. 12.09.2019 to provide pension benefits to small and marginal farmers. PM KMY is meant for Small and Marginal Farmers falling in the entry age between 18 to 40 years having cultivable land up to 2 hectares The scheme seeks to provide Rs 3,000/- monthly pension to the Small and Marginal Farmers once they attain 60 years of age. As of now total number of farmers enrolled under the scheme is 23.38 Lakhs. . 

3. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) 

PMFBY was launched in 2016 in order to provide a simple and affordable crop insurance product to ensure comprehensive risk cover for crops to farmers against all non-preventable natural risks from pre-sowing to post-harvest and to provide adequate claim amount. The scheme is demand driven and available for all farmers A total of 5549.40 lakh farmer applications were insured under the scheme since 2016-17. Total Rs 150589.10 crore has been paid as claim. 

4. Interest Subvention Scheme (ISS) & Kisan Credit Card Saturation Drive 

The Interest Subvention Scheme (ISS) provides concessional short term agri-loans to the farmers practicing crop husbandry and other allied activities like animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries. ISS is available to farmers availing short term crop loans upto Rs.3.00 lakh at an interest rate of 7% per annum for one year. Additional 3% subvention is also given to the farmers for prompt and timely repayment of loans thus reducing the effective rate of interest to 4% per annum. The benefit of ISS is also available for post-harvest loans against Negotiable Warehouse Receipts (NWRs) on crop loans for a further period of six months postharvest to small and marginal farmers having Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs), on occurrence of natural calamities and severe natural calamities. Under KCC saturation drive announced in 2020. As on 20-10-2023, 482.73 lakh new KCC applications have been sanctioned with a sanctioned credit limit of Rs. 5,47,819 crore as part of the drive.

5. Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) 

The Government of India has launched the Central Sector Scheme (CSS) for “Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)” in the year 2020. Formation & promotion of FPOs are to be done through Implementing Agencies (IAs), which further engage Cluster Based Business Organizations (CBBOs) to form & provide professional handholding support to FPOs for a period of 05 years including preparation and execution of business plan for the concerned FPOs for ensuring better marketing opportunities & market linkages on sustainable basis. As on 31.10.2023, total 7476 FPOs were registered under the scheme in the country. 

6. Agriculture Infrastructure 

In order to address the existing infrastructure gaps and mobilize investment in agriculture infrastructure, Rs 1 Fund (AIF) lakh crore Agri Infra Fund was launched under Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan in 2020. The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund is a medium - long term debt financing facility for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets through interest subvention and credit guarantee support. As on 17-11-2023, Rs.32,042 Crores have been sanctioned for 42,447 projects under AIF, out of this total sanctioned amount, Rs 25,504 Crores is covered under scheme benefits. These sanctioned projects have mobilized an investment of Rs 54,487 Crores in agriculture sector.

7. National Mission on Edible Oil-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) 

A new Centrally Sponsored Scheme namely, National Mission on Edible Oil (NMEO)-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) has been launched by Government of India to promote oil palm cultivation for making the country Aatmanirbhar in edible oils with special focus on NorthEastern States and A&N Islands. The Mission will bring additional area of 6.5 lakh ha under Oil Palm plantation with 3.28 lakh ha in north-eastern states and 3.22 in Rest of India in next 5 years from 2021-22 to 2025-26. 

8. National Beekeeping & Honey Mission (NBHM) 

Keeping in view the importance of beekeeping, a new Central Sector Scheme entitled National Beekeeping & Honey Mission (NBHM) was launched in 2020 under Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan for its implementation in the field for overall promotion and development of scientific beekeeping & to achieve the goal of “Sweet Revolution”.

9. National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF) 

Government is promoting Natural Farming since 2019- 20 through a sub-scheme “Bhartiya Prakratik Krishi Paddhati – (BPKP)” under Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna (PKVY). Under BPKP, 4.09 lakh ha area has been covered in 8 states+ 

10. Minimum Support Price (MSP) 

The Govt. adopted the new MSP policy in 2018 based on recommendation of MS Swaminathan Commission. Government has increased the MSP for all mandated Kharif, Rabi and other commercial crops with a return of at least 50 per cent over all India weighted average cost of production from 2018-19. MSP for Paddy (common) has increased to Rs. 2183 per quintal in 2023-24 from Rs. 1310 per quintal in 2013-14. MSP for Wheat increased from Rs. 1400 per quintal in 2013-14 to Rs. 2125 per quintal in 2022-23.

11. International Year of Millets 

Since the declaration of the International Year of Millets (IYM) 2023 by the UNGA in 2021, Government has taken a proactive multi stakeholder engagement approach to achieve the aim of IYM 2023 and taking Indian millets globally. In order to investigate the gaps and challenges across the millets value chain and implementation of suitable solutions, 6 task forces were constituted. Also, 25 seed-hubs have been established to ensure availability of quality seed of latest improved varieties of Nutri cereals in the country. Millet missions have been launched across 13 states including Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. More than 500 start-ups and 350 FPOs have been established and are operational in the millet ecosystem as of now.

12. Promotion of Drone Technology in Agriculture 

Looking into the unique advantages of drone technologies in agriculture, a Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) has been released. In order to make this technology affordable to the farmers and other stakeholders of this sector, financial assistance @ 100 % cost of drone together with the contingent expenditure is provided for its demonstration on the farmers’ fields. So far an amount of Rs. 138.82 crores have been released towards Kisan drone promotion.

13. Agri Startups 

Under RKVY Agri-startup Programme, since 2019-20, 1259 Start-ups have been selected and Rs. 83.67 crore released as grants-in-aid for funding these Start-ups.

14. Agristack

It is a federated architecture for better planning, monitoring, policy making, strategy formulation and smooth implementation of schemes. AgriStack architecture has the following foundational layers: -

 Core registries

 Base databases

 Farmers Database: Farmers ID linked with land records

 Geo-referencing of plots  Crop Survey, Crop planning and

 Soil Mapping, Soil Fertility  Unified Farmers Service Interface for state.

 Data Exchange