- Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (National Agriculture Infra Financing Facility).
- The Union Cabinet in July 2020 has approved a new pan India Central Sector Scheme called Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (National Agriculture Infra Financing Facility). The scheme shall provide 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 financial support.
- The duration of the Scheme shall be from FY2020 to FY2032 (10 years).
- The scheme proposes to invest Rs 100,000 crore to create infrastructure at farm gate and aggregation points such as supply chain services and e-marketing platforms, warehouses, silos, pack houses, assaying, sorting and grading units, cold chains, logistics facilities, primary processing centres and ripening chambers.
- It also proposes to extend assistance in the form of back ended capital investment subsidy for post harvest management projects like pack house, ripening chambers refer van, retail outlets, pre-cooling units and primary processing etc. up to Rs 145 lakh per project.
- It would also provide assistance up to Rs 50 lakh per unit for Integrated pack house with facilities for conveyer belt, sorting, grading units, washing, and weighing. Upto Rs 25 lakh would be provided for pre- cooling per unit, Rs 6800 to 9500 per MT to cold storage with 5000-10000 MT capacity and Rs. 1 lakh per MT for ripening chamber.
- Farm credit– is given to farmers through a large network of commercial banks, regional rural banks and cooperative credit institutions. There is a provision of interest assistance or collateral/security free loans under which crop loans upto Rs 3 lakhat the interest rate of 7% which effectively becomes 4% due to interest subvention rate of 3%.
Apart from this there is a Kisan credit card scheme.
Kisan credit card- Farmers can avail crop loan through Kisan credit card. Loan/ credit loan/credit limit is determined by crop down and area under cultivation. Kisan credit cards are valid up to 3-5 years. Farmers are also provided risk coverage in the event of accidental death/ disabilty. Crop coverage loans are covered under crop insurance scheme Farmers can also get loan for investment purpose in the areas of irrigation, agricultural mechanisation, land development, plantation, horticulture, and post harvest management.
- Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana
Water is the most important element that is required to farm a field. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) was launched on 1st July 2015 with the motto of ‘Har Khet ko Pani’ for providing end to end solutions in irrigation supply chain, viz., water resources, distribution network, farm level applications and improving water use efficiency. Micro irrigation (MI) is being popularized to ensure ‘Per Drop – More Crop’ (PDMC). This scheme includes assistance for water carrying pipes, drip irrigation system oil pipes, plastic/Rcc based water harvesting
- Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. The Indian government has launched this scheme in the year 2016. The new Crop Insurance Scheme is in line with One Nation – One Scheme theme. It incorporates the best features of all previous schemes and at the same time, all previous shortcomings / weaknesses have been removed. The PMFBY will replace the existing two schemes National Agricultural Insurance Scheme as well as the Modified NAIS.
The main objectives of the programme is to provide insurance coverage and financial support to the farmers in the event of failure of any of the notified crop as a result of natural calamities, pests & diseases.; to stabilise the income of farmers to ensure their continuance in farming.; to encourage farmers to adopt innovative and modern agricultural practices and to to ensure flow of credit to the agriculture sector.
Major highlights of the scheme are:
- will be a uniform premium of only 2% to be paid by farmers for all Kharif crops and 1.5% for all Rabi crops. In case of annual commercial and horticultural crops, the premium to be paid by farmers will be only 5%. The premium rates to be paid by farmers are very low and balance premium will be paid by the Government to provide full insured amount to the farmers against crop loss on account of natural calamities
- There is no upper limit on Government subsidy. Even if balance premium is 90%, it will be borne by the Government.
- Earlier, there was a provision of capping the premium rate which resulted in low claims being paid to farmers. This capping was done to limit Government outgo on the premium subsidy. This capping has now been removed and farmers will get claim against full sum insured without any reduction.
- The use of technology will be encouraged to a great extent. Smart phones will be used to capture and upload data of crop cutting to reduce the delays in claim payment to farmers. Remote sensing will be used to reduce the number of crop cutting experiments.
- PMFBY is a replacement scheme of NAIS / MNAIS, there will be exemption from Service Tax liability of all the services involved in the implementation of the scheme. It is estimated that the new scheme will ensure about 75-80 per cent of subsidy for the farmers in insurance premium.
- All farmers growing notified crops in a notified area during the season who have insurable interest in the crop are eligible.
- To address the demand of farmers, the scheme has been made voluntary for all farmers from Kharif 2020.
Earlier to Kharif 2020, the enrollment under the scheme was compulsory for following categories of farmers:
- Farmers in the notified area who possess a Crop Loan account/KCC account (called as Loanee Farmers) to whom credit limit is sanctioned/renewed for the notified crop during the crop season. and
- Such other farmers whom the Government may decide to include from time to time.
Voluntary coverage : Voluntary coverage may be obtained by all farmers not covered above, including Crop KCC/Crop Loan Account holders whose credit limit is not renewed.
Risks covered under the scheme
- Losses (standing crops, on notified area basis). Comprehensive risk insurance is provided to cover yield losses due to non-preventable risks, such as Natural Fire and Lightning, Storm, Hailstorm, Cyclone, Typhoon, Tempest, Hurricane, Tornado. Risks due to Flood, Inundation and Landslide, Drought, Dry spells, Pests/ Diseases also will be covered.
- In cases where majority of the insured farmers of a notified area, having intent to sow/plant and incurred expenditure for the purpose, are prevented from sowing/planting the insured crop due to adverse weather conditions, shall be eligible for indemnity claims upto a maximum of 25 per cent of the sum-insured.
- In post-harvest losses, coverage will be available up to a maximum period of 14 days from harvesting for those crops which are kept in “cut & spread” condition to dry in the field.
- For certain localized problems, Loss / damage resulting from occurrence of identified localized risks like hailstorm, landslide, and Inundation affecting isolated farms in the notified area would also be covered.
Unit of Insurance
Scheme shall be implemented on an ‘Area Approach basis’ i.e., Defined Areas for each notified crop for widespread calamities with the assumption that all the insured farmers, in a Unit of Insurance, to be defined as “Notified Area‟ for a crop, face similar risk exposures, incur to a large extent, identical cost of production per hectare, earn comparable farm income per hectare, and experience similar extent of crop loss due to the operation of an insured peril, in the notified area.
Defined Area (i.e., unit area of insurance) is Village/Village Panchayat level by whatsoever name these areas may be called for major crops and for other crops it may be a unit of size above the level of Village/Village Panchayat. In due course of time, the Unit of Insurance can be a Geo-Fenced/Geo-mapped region having homogenous Risk Profile for the notified crop.
For Risks of Localised calamities and Post-Harvest losses on account of defined peril, the Unit of Insurance for loss assessment shall be the affected insured field of the individual farmer.
There are other insurance schemes, eg Coconut Palm insurance scheme (CPIS) and Pilot Unified Package insurance scheme UPIS) (45 districts).
Coverage under PMFBY/WBCIS/CPIS/UPIS is compulsory, if you avail crop loan for notified crops. Coverage is voluntary for non-loanee farmers.
National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) is a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme with a special focus on the North east region and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with a focus on increasing area and productivity of oilseeds and Oil Palm.
Scheme of outlay
A financial outlay of Rs.11,040 crore has been made for the scheme, out of which Rs.8,844 crore is the Government of India share and Rs.2,196 crore is State share and this includes the viability gap funding also.
The proposed scheme will subsume the current National Food Security Mission-Oil Palm programme.
Scheme outcomes
Under this scheme, it is proposed to cover an additional area of 6.5 lakh hectare (ha.) for oil palm till the year 2025-26 and thereby reaching the target of 10 lakh hectares ultimately. The production of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) is expected to go upto 11.20 lakh tonnes by 2025-26 and upto 28 lakh tonnes by 2029-30.
- PM Kisan Maan Dhan Yojana
Government has launched the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maan DhanYojana (PM-KMY) on 12.9.2019 with a view to provide social security to Small and Marginal Farmers in their old age when they have no means of livelihood and minimal or no savings to take care of their expenses.
Benefits
Under this scheme, a minimum fixed pension of Rs.3,000/- is provided to the small and marginal farmers, subject to certain exclusion criteria, on attaining the age of 60 years. It is a voluntary and contributory pension scheme. The eligible farmer is required to contribute to a Pension Fund between Rs.55 to Rs.200 per month depending on the entry age. The Central Government also contributes in equal amount to the pension fund.
Eligibility
- Small and Marginal Farmer (SMF) – a farmer who owns cultivable land upto 2 hectare as per land records of the concerned State/UT.
- Age of 18- 40 years
The following categories of farmers have been brought under the exclusion criteria:
- SMFs covered under any other statuary social security schemes such as National Pension Scheme (NPS), Employees’ State Insurance Corporation scheme, Employees’ Fund Organization Scheme etc.
- Farmers who have opted for Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan Dhan Yojana (PM-SYM) administered by the Ministry of Labour & Employment
- Farmers who have opted for Pradhan Mantri Laghu Vyapari Maan-dhan Yojana (PM-LVM) administered by the Ministry of Labour & Employment
- Further, the following categories of beneficiaries of higher economic status shall not be eligible for benefits under the scheme:
- All Institutional Land holders; and
- Former and present holders of constitutional posts
- Former and present Ministers/ State Ministers and former/present Members of Lok Sabha/ Rajya Sabha/ State Legislative Assemblies/ State Legislative Councils,former and present Mayors of Municipal Corporations, former and present Chairpersons of District Panchayats.
- All serving or retired officers and employees of Central/ State Government Ministries/ Offices/Departments and theirfield units,Central or State PSEs and Attached offices/ Autonomous Institutions under Government as well as regular employees of the Local Bodies (Excluding Multi Tasking Staff / Class IV/Group D employees)
- All Persons who paid Income Tax in last assessment year.
- Professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, and Architects registered with Professional bodies and carrying out profession by undertaking practice.
6. Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)
Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is a new Central Sector Scheme to provide income support to all landholding farmers’ families in the country to supplement their financial needs for procuring various inputs related to agriculture and allied activities as well as domestic needs.
Eligibility
All land holding eligible farmer families (subject to the prevalent exclusion criteria) are to avail of the benefits under this scheme.
The following categories of beneficiaries of higher economic status shall not be eligible for benefit under the scheme.
- All Institutional Land holders.
- Farmer families in which one or more of its members belong to following categories
- Former and present holders of constitutional posts
- Former and present Ministers/ State Ministers and former/present Members of LokSabha/ RajyaSabha/ State Legislative Assemblies/ State Legislative Councils,former and present Mayors of Municipal Corporations, former and present Chairpersons of District Panchayats.
- All serving or retired officers and employees of Central/ State Government Ministries /Offices/Departments and its field units Central or State PSEs and Attached offices /Autonomous Institutions under Government as well as regular employees of the Local Bodies (Excluding Multi Tasking Staff /Class IV/Group D employees)
- All superannuated/retired pensioners whose monthly pension is Rs.10,000/-or more (Excluding Multi Tasking Staff / Class IV/Group D employees) of above category
- All Persons who paid Income Tax in last assessment year
- Professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, and Architects registered with Professional bodies and carrying out profession by undertaking practices.
Benefits
Under the PM-KISAN scheme, all landholding farmers’ families shall be provided the financial benefit of Rs. 6000 per annum per family payable in three equal installments of Rs. 2000 each, every four months.