Dr. Parveen Kumar, Dr. Anil Kumar
Agriculture in the country at last has come to receive renewed and focused attention. A series of flagship programmes have been started for holistic development of this very vital sector. Although it is too early to comment on the success of these programmes; but these are definitely bold initiatives. Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojana, Prime Minister Krishi Sinchai Yojana, Soil Health Card Scheme, the National Agricultural Market and the Agricultural Startup; all are schemes with a difference.
Pradehanmanntri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY)
‘Har Khet Ko Pani’ is what the flagship programme of the NDA government intends to have. To accord highest priority to the water conservation and its management, Government of India has started yet another Prime Minister Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY). Scarcity of water to crops is a major obstacle in raising crop productivity. Of the total 142 million hectares of cultivable land in the country, 65 per cent is still not covered under irrigation. As such there was an urgent need of a programme to cater to the irrigation requirements of these areas. PMKSY has been launched as a national mission to improve farm productivity with a budget of 500 billion in next five years. The Yojana to be implemented in a mission mode and about 28.5 lakh hectares will be brought under irrigation. The scheme has been a amalgamation of the earlier Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP), River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Integrated Water Management Programme (IWMP). For the year 2015-16 an outlay of rupees 5,300 crore has been made. The programme aims at bringing irrigation water to every village by convergence of ongoing schemes. Basically it will stress on connecting three components of the irrigation system the sources of water, the distribution network and the field application. The programme provides flexibility to the states in planning and execution of the irrigation projects. The state agricultural departments are the nodal agencies for the implementation of the programme. The amount to be spent is almost twice the budget for any irrigation scheme in any earlier budgets. About 1300 watershed projects are incomplete due to lack of monetary support. It is supposed that the work in these will also be completed thereby catering to the irrigation need of thousands of hectares of land n their vicinity. Also the Implementation of 89 irrigation projects under AIBP which are languishing for a long time will soon be completed. A dedicated long term irrigation fund will be created in NABARD with an initial corpus of about Rs20,000 crore.
Soil health cards:
Soil is a vital component contributing to the plant growth. It definitely is a living entity which needs timely supply of nutrients to be in good health. Good health of the soil ultimately gives a good crop. But unfortunately most of the farmers of the country are still ignorant of the soil health. Without caring for it they take crop after crop; years after years resulting in depletion of all the essential nutrients. Soil Health Card is another scheme of the union government which aims at providing soil health cards to about 14 crore farmers of the country in next three years. Soil health cards will provide the farmers with crop wise recommendations of the nutrients and fertilizers required for their crops based on the nutrient status of their soils. It will also allow them to use their inputs judiciously. For this an amount of rupees 568 crore has been kept in 2016 budget and a sum of rupees 100 crore has been allocated to states to for making soil health cards and to set up soil testing laboratories. To ensure the quality of soil sample test, the state government will have to send 1 per cent of the soil sample in a year to a referral laboratory to analyze and certify on the results of primary laboratories.
Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMBFY):
To protect the farmers from all related risks that could result in crop failure or severe yield losses the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana was started. It is to be administered by MoA and FW and to be implemented with the active cooperation of respective state governments. The PMFBY covers the entire duration of crops from pre sowing to post harvest losses.
An amount of Rs 5,501.15 crores has been kept for the year 2016-17 and will be operational from kharif 2016. The PMFBY provides insurance protection for all crops with a uniform maximum premium for all farmers 2 per cent of sum assured in Kharif and 1.5 per cent of sum assured in Rabi and for horticultural/commercial crops 5 per cent of sum assured. The scheme is mandatory for loanee farmers and as per the will of the non loanee farmers. If the conditions are not favorable and sowing is not done claims up to 85 per cent of the sum insured will be paid. The assessment is to be made at individual farm level on loss due to hail storm and landslides. It will also make use of technologies like remote sensing.
Neem Coated Urea
Urea is the most popular and widely used Nitrogenous fertilizer with 46 per cent Nitrogen content. The Nitrogen is available to plants due to process called nitrification. IN cases, if the nitrification occurs very fast, nitrogen escapes to atmosphere and plants are not be able to recover it from Urea efficiently.
