Government Initiatives

1. Soil Health Card Scheme

Launched in 2015, the scheme has been introduced to assist State Governments to issue Soil Health Cards to all farmers in the country.? The Soil Health Cards provide information to farmers on nutrient status of their soil along with recommendation on appropriate dosage of nutrients to be applied for improving soil health and its fertility. 

2. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)

PMFBY is an actuarial premium based scheme under which farmer has to pay maximum premium of 2% for Kharif, 1.5% for Rabi food & oilseed crops and 5% for annual commercial/horticultural crops and remaining part of the actuarial/bidded premium is shared equally by the Centre and State Government.  One of the objectives of the scheme is to facilitate prompt claims settlement. The claims must be settled within two months of harvest subject to timely provision of both yield data and share of premium subsidy by the State Government.

3. Neem Coated Urea (NCU)

This scheme is initiated to regulate use of urea, enhance availability of nitrogen to the crop and reduce cost of fertilizer application.? NCU slows down the release of fertilizer and makes it available to the crop in an effective manner. The entire quantity of domestically manufactured and imported urea is now neem coated.  It reduces the cost of cultivation and improves soil health management. 

4. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY)

It was launched on 1st July, 2015 with the motto of ‘Har Khet Ko Paani’ for providing end-to end solutions in irrigation supply chain, viz. water sources, distribution network and farm level applications. 

PMKSY not only focuses on creating sources for assured irrigation, but also creating protective irrigation by harnessing rain water at micro level through ‘Jal Sanchay’ and ‘Jal Sinchan’.  

Micro irrigation is to be popularised to ensure ‘Per drop-More crop’. PMKSY adopts State level planning and projectised execution that allows States to draw up their own irrigation development based on District Irrigation Plans and State Irrigation Plans. 

5. Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY)

Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana is implemented with a view to promote organic farming in the country.?To improve soil health and organic matter content and increase net income of the farmer so as to realise premium prices.  Under this scheme, an area of 5 lakh acre is targeted to be covered though 10,000 clusters of 50 acre each, from the year 2015-16 to 2017-18. 

6. National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) 

It provides e-marketing platform at national level and support creation of infrastructure to enable e-marketing. 

This innovative market process is revolutionizing agriculture markets by ensuring better price discovery. It brings in transparency and competition to enable farmers to get improved remuneration for their produce moving towards ‘One Nation One Market’.?  

7. Micro Irrigation Fund (MIF) 

A dedicated MIF created with NABARD has been approved with an initial corpus of Rs. 5000 crore (Rs. 2000 crore for 2018-19 & Rs. 3000 crore for 2019-20) for encouraging public and private investments in Micro irrigation. The main objective of the fund is to facilitate the States in mobilizing the resources for expanding coverage of Micro Irrigation. 

MIF would not only facilitate States in incentivizing and mobilizing resources for achieving the target envisaged under PMKSY-PDMC but also in bringing additional coverage through special and innovative initiatives by State Governments. 

An Advisory Committee has been set up to provide policy direction and ensure effective planning, coordination and monitoring of the Micro Irrigation Fund.  

8. Agriculture Contingency Plan 

Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), ICAR has prepared district level Agriculture Contingency Plans in collaboration with state agricultural universities using a standard template to tackle aberrant monsoon situations leading to drought and floods, extreme events (heat waves, cold waves, frost, hailstorms, cyclone) adversely affecting crops, livestock and fisheries (including horticulture).  

Total 614 district agriculture contingency plans are placed in the ‘farmer portal’ of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India (http://www.farmer.gov.in) and also in the ICAR / CRIDA website (http://www.crida.in) for downloading the full plan by stakeholders for operational use. 

9. Rainfed Area Development Programme (RADP)

Rainfed Area Development Programme (RADP) was implemented as a sub-scheme under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY).

10. National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas (NWDPRA)

The scheme of National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas (NWDPRA) was launched in 1990-91 based on twin concepts of integrated watershed management and sustainable farming systems. 

 

11. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA)

NMSA is one of the eight Missions under National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). It aims at promoting Sustainable Agriculture through climate change adaptation measures, enhancing agriculture productivity especially in rainfed areas focusing on integrated farming, soil health management, and synergizing resource conservation. 

NMSA as a programmatic intervention caters to Mission Deliverables that focuses mainly on conservation agriculture to make farm sector more productive, sustainable, remunerative and climate resilient by promoting location specific integrated/composite farming systems. 

12. Livestock insurance Scheme

It aims to provide protection mechanism to the farmers and cattle rearers against any eventual loss of animals due to death. The scheme also demonstrates the benefit of the insurance of livestock to the people and popularizes it with the ultimate goal of attaining qualitative improvement in livestock and their products. 

13. National Scheme on Welfare of Fishermen

This scheme was launched to provide financial assistance to fishers for construction of house, community hall for recreation and common working place. It also aims to install tube-wells for drinking water and assistance during lean period through saving cum relief component. 

14. Scheme on Fisheries Training and Extension

It was launched to provide training for fishery sector so as to assist in undertaking fisheries extension programmes effectively. 

15. Gramin Bhandaran Yojna

Objective of this Scheme: 

Create scientific storage capacity with allied facilities in rural areas.

To meet the requirements of farmers for storing farm produce, processed farm produce and agricultural inputs.

Promotion of grading, standardization and quality control of agricultural produce to improve their marketability.

Prevent distress sale immediately after harvest by providing the facility of pledge financing and marketing credit by strengthening agricultural marketing infrastructure in the country.