Farmers are the backbone of our country. We get food every day because of the farmers who grow crops each year. It is, therefore, important to help farmers meet their needs. Both central and state governments have been initiating various government schemes from time to time to uplift the agricultural sector and support the farmers involved. The following article discusses different government schemes for farmers that every farmer should be aware of. Read on to learn about these schemes.
Table of Contents
Introduction
We all know that farmers face various challenges every day, including floods, barren lands, natural calamities, insect infestations, weather changes, scarcity of money, and much more. Hence, it is important for them to know and be aware of all the government schemes for farmers available for their welfare and betterment. So, if you are a farmer or belong to a farming family, read the complete article to learn about the top 10 government schemes available for farmers.
Purpose of Offering Government Schemes to Farmers
First of all, it is important to understand why these government schemes for farmers are necessary. The government launches agricultural schemes in India to improve and support the livelihood of those in need, providing them with a better life. Every scheme is launched with the purpose of offering privileges to individuals. Let’s now dive into the top 10 government schemes meant for farmers.
Government Schemes for Farmers
- National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA)
To make agriculture more productive, sustainable, remunerative, and climate-resilient, the Government of India introduced the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) in 2014-2015. This scheme promotes location-specific sustainable farming practices, soil conservation and moisture protection measures, soil nutrient measurement, and efficient water management practices, including mainstreaming rainfed methods. A major component of the mission is farm water management, which aims to increase water use efficiency by promoting modern technologies such as micro-irrigation and sustainable water management practices.
2. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)
We ensure ourselves with multiple insurances like term insurance, life insurance, etc. Likewise, crops grown by farmers too can be insured with Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. We all know that the extreme weather conditions such as draughts, floods, hailstorm, etc cause a lot of crop loss and crop failure and financial loss to farmers every year. And, therefore, to save them from all these ill effects, the government by merging all the previous crop insurance schemes has launched a scheme called as the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. The main of this scheme is to support the production in agriculture by providing an affordable crop insurance system in place.
The Central government has made Aadhaar card mandatory for availing the crop insurance. The scheme has been restructured with States given the option to determine the scale of finance at district level as per the average yield. So, this basically means that here the insurance farmers get for the crops will be analyzed and would be determined by the respective state governments.
3. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY)
The government of India has structured Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) with the vision to extend the coverage of irrigation and improving water use efficiency in a focussed manner. PMKSY focusses end-to-end solution on source creation, distribution management field application and extended activities. The centre has structured this scheme with emerging previous irrigation as well as the water management programs such as the accelerated irrigation benefit program that we had earlier such as integrated watershed management program, etc. So, clubbing all together, they have come up with this scheme.
4. Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY)
Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) is one of the important government schemes that farmers need to aware of, which encourages farmers for traditional as well as organic farming in the country. Since the first Covid 19 Pandemic, the demand for organic food products has increased exponentially. So, PKVY is one of the schemes that will help farmers in doing organic farming. So, under this scheme, the government of India provides financial assistance to all the farmers of up to rupees 50 thousand per hectare every 3 years for multiple reasons such as for organic inputs, certification, licensing, labelling, packaging, transporting, and marketing as well. So, the scheme focusses on reducing the ill effects of the overuse of fertilizers that we currently see in the country. This scheme promotes the use of organic manures, biofertilizers, and biopesticides. It helps in improving the soil fertility by improving organic carbon in the soil which results in enhancing the moisture holding capacity in the fields too.
5. Micro Irrigation Fund Scheme
\NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) has created a micro irrigation fund with the corpus of rupees 5000 crore implemented from 2019- 2020. The objective of the fund is to facilitate the States in a whaling and interest subverted loan for expanding the coverage of micro irrigation facilities by taking up the special and innovative projects and also for incentivizing micro irrigation beyond the provisions available under the PMKSY scheme.
6. E- NAM
Most of the farmers cultivating and growing crops is much easier than selling their produce. Selling of cultivate produce is one of the major challenges farmers are facing in the real world. In order to connect the existing local farm markets, called MUNDIS on the common online market platform for trading the agricultural commodities, the government of India has come up with a scheme called as E-NAM (e-Agriculture Market). So far, E-NAM has connected thousands of MUNDIS in most of the States and Union Territories. Implemented by small farmers, agri-business consortium, E-NAM aims at reducing the transaction cost bridging the information asymmetric and helping expansion of the market access for farmers and other stakeholders. Since the implementation of the scheme E-NAM has registered as much as a user base of crores of farmers. Besides, lakhs of traders, commercial agents, and farm producer organizations have been connected so far.
7. Kisan Credit Card (KCC)
In a bid to provide adequate and timely credit to farmers for their agricultural expenditures, the central government has come up with a scheme called as the Kisan Credit Card (KCC). This scheme was started in the year 1998. Under this scheme, the government of India provides farm credits at a very subsidized rate of interest which is as low as 2% and on an average, farmers would need to pay only 4% per annum. Since 2019, the centre has extended the benefits of KCC to animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries farmers as well as for their working capital requirements. It has raised an existing limit of collateral free loan of up to rupees 1 lakh to about 1.6 lakhs.
8. Soil Health Card
Any farmers doing any kind of farming for that matter assessing soil texture. It is one of the major factors that farmers need to look into. So, with an objective of conserving and maintaining the soil nutrients and soil fertility – soil health card scheme issues soil health cards to all the farmers every two years to provide a basis to adjust the nutritional deficiencies in the fields, if any. Under the government schemes for farmers, soil testing is conducted to analyze the nutrient needs and then the crop wise fertilizers are recommended accordingly. This will help farmers reduce their entire cultivation cost by applying the right fertilizers with the right kind of quantity that is needed.
9. PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana
Launched in the year 2019, PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana makes the transferring of rupees 6000 per annum directly to the farmers bank account through the DBT, which is also called as the Direct Benefits Transfer in three instalments of rupees 2000 each. The scheme supplements the financial needs of the small and marginal farmers in buying the farm inputs and also other agricultural expenses. The scheme aims to protect the farmers from falling in the vicious traps of local moneylenders and ensures their continuation in the farming activities
10. Livestock Insurance Scheme
This is one of the government schemes for farmers that aims to provide protection mechanisms to all the farmers and cattle rears against the eventual loss of their animals due to many different reasons including death. It aims to demonstrate the benefits of the insurance of livestock to the people and popularize it with the ultimate goal of attaining quantitative improvement in livestock and their products as well.
These are some of the top 10 government schemes for farmers that are solely meant for the farmers and to improve the farming activities in our country.