Union Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan today addresses a press conference to mark the important decisions and achievements taken by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare in the 100 days of the third term of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.

Union Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan today addresses a press conference to mark the important decisions and achievements taken by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare in the 100 days of the third term of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.

Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and Rural Development Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan today informed the media through a press conference on the occasion of important decisions and achievements for the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare in 100 days during the third term of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Dr. Devesh Chaturvedi and Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Director General of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Dr. Himanshu Pathak and other officials of the Ministry were also present in the press conference.

Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy and is also the base of our life and it is the biggest responsibility of the government to provide food security to 140 crore countrymen. Farmers are the soul and life of agriculture. Prime Minister Shri Modi said from the rampart of the Red Fort that he will work three times more than before. All the officers of the Agriculture Department, including me, had taken a pledge that why should the Prime Minister work alone, we will all work together. We have made this effort in the first hundred days. We have a six-point strategy for the welfare of farmers and development of agriculture.

First – increasing production, how to increase the yield per hectare? Among the decisions taken recently, the major decision was that to increase the production of crops, the Prime Minister had dedicated new seeds of 109 varieties of 65 crops to the farmers, which are climate friendly, pest resistant and high yielding.

Second – Reducing the cost of production, as important as it is to increase production, it is equally important to reduce the cost of production. One way of reducing it is to provide cheap fertilizers to farmers. We are committed to ensure that farmers get cheap fertilizers on time. He said that a bag of urea costs Rs 2366. We make it available to farmers for Rs 266. A bag of DAP costs Rs 2433 which we make available to farmers for Rs 1350.

The Union Minister said that another special work has been done in 100 days that the launch of Digital Agriculture Mission has been approved. He said that the National Pest Surveillance System is very important for farmers and farmers have also started using it. Shri Chouhan said that Modern Kisan Chaupal – Lab to Land is going to be started in October in which scientists will provide direct information to the farmers.

While briefing the media, Union Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan said about the major achievements of the Ministry for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare in 100 days, which are as follows:

PM KISAN

The first important decision that PM took after taking over as Prime Minister for the third time was to release ₹ 21000cr  to more than 9.26 crore farmers. As part of the Government’s 100-day program, saturation drives were undertaken  to add over 25 lakh new farmers to the scheme, bringing the total beneficiaries to 9.51 crore under the scheme.

Additionally, the Ministry utilised the voice based AI-chatbot “Kisan-eMitra” to assist farmers with queries regarding PM-KISAN, in their own language. To date, the Chatbot has successfully resolved more than 82 lakh queries from 50 lakh farmers. The Kisane Mitra Chatbot is being upgraded to support other schemes of the Ministry, such as the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) and PM Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) schemes.

The first important decision that PM took after taking over as Prime Minister for the third time was to release ₹ 21000cr  to more than 9.26 crore farmers.

As part of the Government’s 100-day program, saturation drives were undertaken  to add over 25 lakh new farmers to the scheme, bringing the total beneficiaries to 9.51 crore under the scheme.

Additionally, the Ministry utilised the voice based AI-chatbot “Kisan-eMitra” to assist farmers with queries regarding PM-KISAN, in their own language.

Till date, the Chatbot has successfully resolved more than 82 lakh queries from 50 lakh farmers. The Kisane Mitra Chatbot is being upgraded to support other schemes of the Ministry, such as the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) and PM Fasal BimaYojana (PMFBY) schemes

Export Import Policy (Important Agricultural Trade Policy Decisions Taken Recently)

Onion

Basmati Rice

Edible Oils – Palm, Soya and Sunflower

Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PM –AASHA) 

The Cabinet has approved the continuation of integrated scheme of Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan PM-AASHA) with a total budget outlay of₹35,000/- crore during 15^th Finance Commission Cycle up to 2025-26 to provide remunerative prices to farmers and also to control price volatility of essential commodities for consumers.

The Government has converged the Price Support Scheme (PSS) & Price Stabilization Fund   (PSF) scheme under PM AASHA to serve the farmers & consumer more efficiently. Now, the integrated scheme of PM AASHA will be implemented wherein, MSP operations will be implemented by DA&FW and Non-MSP operations will be implemented by DOCA which includes procurement from Pre-registered farmers on eSamridhi portal of NAFED and eSamyukti portal of NCCF. This would also motivate the farmers to cultivate more of these crops in the country and contribute in achieving self-sufficiency in these crops leading to reduction in dependence on imports to meet domestic requirement.

PM-AASHAwill now have the components of

The Government has renewed & enhanced the existing Govt. guarantee to ₹45,000/- crore for procurement of pulses, oilseeds & copra at MSP from farmers. This will help in more procurement of pulses, oilseeds & copra from farmers at MSP whenever prices fall below MSP in the market.

The procurement of pulses, oilseeds & copra at MSP under PSS will be on 25% of national Production from 2024-25 seasons onwards which would enable States to procure more of these crops at MSP from farmers for ensuring remunerative prices and preventing distress sale.

To encourage farmers of Tur, Urad and Masoor to produce more for ensuring aatmanirbartha in pulses, the procurement ceiling of 25% has been lifted for these pulses for the year 2024-25.

During the ensuing Kharifseason, to ensure remunerative prices for farmers, sanction accorded for

In order to encourage the states to come forward for implementation of Price Deficit payment System (PDPS), the coverage of notified oilseeds has been enhanced from

In order to enable states take maximum benefit of Market Intervention Scheme (MIS), the criteria for implementation of MIS will be

 

The Government has added the option of making differential payment directly into the farmers’ account instead of physical procurement under MIS.Further, in case of TOP (Tomato, Onion &Potato) crops, to bridge the price gap in  TOP crops between producing states & consuming states during peak harvesting time, the Govt. has decided to bear the transportation & storage expenses for the operations undertaken by Central Nodal Agencies like NAFED & NCCF which will not only ensure remunerative prices to farmers but also soften the prices of TOP crops for consumers in the market . MIS will now be a component of PM-AASHA.

Digital Agriculture Mission

The Cabinet Committee, chaired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi approved the Digital Agriculture Mission on 2^nd September 2024 with an outlay of Rs. 2817 Crore.

The Mission seeks to build Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for Agriculture, announced in the Union budget for 2023-24 and 2024-25. The DPIs are being built in coordination with the States.  The Government of India has signed MoUs with 19 States to build the DPIs under the Mission.

The Agri stack – DPI would provide farmers with a digital identity (Farmer ID) similar to Aadhaar. The crops sown data on farmer’s land will be collected through mobile-based digital crop surveys. Pilots have already been conducted in six States to create Farmer IDs and 12 States for the mobile-based collection of crop-sown data.

The goal is to create digital identities for 11 crore farmers by 2026-27. The Digital crop survey to collect crop sown data is targeted to be launched nationwide within two years, with 400 districts covered in 2024-25 and the rest in 2025-26.

The Krishi Decision Support System – DPI launched on 16^th August 2024 will create a comprehensive national-level geospatial system to unify remote sensing-based information on Crops, Soil, Weather, water resources, etc.

Detailed Soil Profile Maps of about 142 million hectares of the country’s agricultural land are envisaged to be completed. Soil profile inventory of about 29 million hectares has already been completed.

The Digital General Crop Estimation Survey (DGCES) will provide yield estimates based on scientifically designed crop-cutting experiments. The pilots were conducted last year and now the new system is being rolled out nationwide from 2024-25.

The Digital Agriculture Mission seeks to enable the development of farmer-centric digital services and make available timely & trustful information for the sector such as;

 

Krishi Sakhis

 

S.N

Division Name

Activities

1

INM Division : Soil Health and MOVCDNER

Soil Sample Collection, Soil health Advisory, Formation of Farmer Producer Organisation, Training of Farmers

3

Crop Division

Cluster Front Line Demonstration, Collection and uploading of data on Krishi Mapper

4

Crop Insurance Division: PMFBY

Mobilizing non loanee farmers, Loss Assessment

5

MIDH Division

Awareness about Horticulture Mission

6

NRM Division: Rainfed Area Development (RAD),Agro-forestry, Per Drop More Crop (PDMC)

Climate Resilient Agriculture Practices Trainings, Distribution of Seedlings, Adoption of micro irrigation

7

Agriculture Infrastructure Fund

Outreach Agent, Facilitating Project, Create Awareness

8

Seed Division: Seed Village Program

Farmer Training on Seed Production @900 per training

9

M&T Division: Sub Mission on Agriculture Mechanisation (SMAM),

Three Visits to Demonstration Field and collect data, photos and upload on the Krishi Mapper App

10

Oil Seeds Division: National Mission on Edible Oils/ – OilSeeds (NMEO-OS)

Three Visits to Demonstration Field and collect data, photos and upload on the Krishi Mapper

11

Plant Protection: NPS

Information on crop Situation, Pest Surveillance through NPSS, Collect photos, uploading photos

12

Credit Division: KCC

Lead connect, KCC Application support, Credit Linkage

13

Crop Statistics

Register at least 6 farmers for each major crop, fortnightly assessments of crop condition

 

Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF)

In order to address the existing infrastructure gaps and mobilize investment in agriculture infrastructure, Agri Infra Fund (AIF) was launched under Aatmanirbhar Bharat Package. AIF was introduced with a vision to transform the agriculture infrastructure landscape of the country. 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 3% interest subvention and credit guarantee support. The Fund of Rs. 1 lakh crore under the scheme will be disbursed from FY 2020-21 to FY 2025-26 and the support under the scheme will be provided for the duration of FY2020-21 to FY2032-33.

 

Progressive Expansion of AIF

Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved an expansion of the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF). Key measures include

 

Progress under the scheme

As on date, Rs. 48,500 Crores have been sanctioned for 76,400 projects under AIF. Major projects sanctioned under AIF include 18,606 custom hiring centres, 16,276 primary processing units, 13,724 warehouses, 3,102 sorting & grading units, 1,909 cold store projects, around 21,394 other kinds of post-harvest management projects and community farming assets.

 

Impact of AIF

Till date, more than 76,400 Agri infrastructure projects have been sanctioned bringing in more than Rs. 80,000 crores worth of investment in the sector and generating nearly 8.25 Lakh employment opportunities in rural areas. The storage infrastructure created under AIF has added nearly 500 LMT of storage capacity which includes approx. 466 LMT of dry storage and nearly 34 LMT of Cold storage capacity. This additional storage capacity can save up to 18.6 LMT of food grains and 3.44 LMT of horticulture produce annually.

DA&FW under its 100 Days Action Plan targeted to create over 7,000 infrastructure units across various regions with a total loan sanction amount of ₹5,000 crore mobilizing an investment of ₹ 7,500 crores for various post-harvest infrastructure projects and community farming assets.  This ambitious plan was executed for a 100-day period, commencing from 10th June and the target was surpassed with a performance @ 100 projects and Rs 100 crore investments per day. The performance during the 100 days against target is as follows

 

S.No.

Parameter

Target

Achievement

% Performance

1

No. of infra Projects

7000

10,066

144%

2

Loan Sanctioned ( Rscr)

5000

6,541

131%

3

Project Investment ( Rs Cr)

7500

10,012

133%

.

Farmers Produce Organisation (FPO):

Facilitating various licenses support to the FPOs required for day to day operation

Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW), Government of India, with the help of State Government facilitated seed, fertilizer, pesticide and APMC trade licenses to FPOs. Thus, FPOs have established backward input linkages by stocking the entire range of inputs — including seeds, fertilizers, bio-pesticides & pesticides for its farmer members. Through this initiative, farmers act collectively and obtain group discounts on the purchase of various inputs (seed, fertilizers, pesticides etc) and, thus, eventually get a better price for the sale of their produce.

From the start of saturation drive to till date, the no. of input licenses (seed, fertilizer, pesticide etc.), APMC trade licenses, FSSAI & GST licenses etc. issued to FPOs have been increased from 7,728 licenses, to 22,462 which is around 3 times increase. In addition, 4433 FPOs were also on boarded on ONDC platform during the saturation drive.

Farmer members of the FPOs will receive numerous benefits from this intervention which included easy accessibility to quality agricultural inputs without the fear of spurious products and assured availability of the inputs throughout the season. In addition, it ensured affordable and fair prices that led to farmer’s savings on the input costs alone, as well as reduced the amount of time spent to get these inputs, since they are now available in the village itself. Savings in input and labour cost reduces the cost of production; thereby the farmers can get more profit to the produce they grow.

Onboarding of FPOs on ONDC Network

As on today – 7757 FPOs have been on boarded on ONDC network. Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is a transformative initiative aimed at democratizing e-commerce by creating an open and decentralized network.

The primary objective of this initiative is to expand the market reach of these FPOs beyond local boundaries, enabling them to connect directly with the consumers across India. Based on the direct dealing with the consumers and with their feedback, FPOs would be in a better position not only to take a better business decision but also to improve the product quality, required packaging, products mix, etc.  By joining ONDC, FPOs will also benefit from a unified market presence, gaining access to value-added services such as credit, insurance, and logistics, without being tied to a single platform. The network also allows B2B transactions, allowing FPOs to engage in bulk orders across India. ONDC’s B2B functionality has provision to include various product categories, from packaged goods and fruits and vegetables to raw commodities.

Clean Plant Program (CPP):

 

National Pest Surveillance System (NPSS)

The National Pest Surveillance System (NPSS) is digital initiative by the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) aimed at enhancing agricultural pest surveillance and improving pest management across the country. The system comprises of a mobile app and a web portal. The mobile app is available on both Android and iOS platforms for receiving pest-related information. The web portal is an integrated platform for monitoring pest incidences and issuance of advisory to the users. NPSS include pest identification module for 61 crops and surveillance module for 15 crops for issuing timely advisories.

NPSS has been launched by Hon’ble Agriculture Minister on 15^th August 2024 for use by farmers, students, scientists, experts etc. in the country. The benefits of NPSS include enhanced pest management, increased agricultural productivity, and data-driven decision-making. NPSS helps in reducing crop losses due to pests and thereby enhances agricultural productivity by providing farmers with timely and accurate pest management solutions. This marks a major step forward in safeguarding the nation’s agricultural output and ensuring food security. With its innovative approach and technological advancements, NPSS represents a significant advancement towards ensuring food security and resilience in agriculture.

 

Progress of NPSS Application use from 15^th August 2024 onward:

 

Main Points of NPSS

 

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)

PMFBY is a Central Sector Scheme to provide Financial Protection to the Farming Communities against different risks and perils sustained by the agriculture & horticulture crops during the life-cycle of the crop across the country.

For the 100 days action plan for activities under the Scheme, getting more number of farmers covered in the current Kharif season in comparison to the last Kharif was one of the action points for the department.

For this purpose, the department has pro-actively approved requests received from different States and UTs for extension of cut-off-date for enrollment of farmers under the scheme. Further, a campaign was launched in the month of July 2024 to saturate the KCC Account holder farmers under PMFBY through the concerned bank branches. During the period one more state, viz. Jharkhand was also onboarded under the scheme.

As a result of these initiatives of GoI, approx. 35 lakh more farmers and 40 lakhs Ha were insured under the scheme. For Kharif 2024 the total number of farmers insured is expected to reach all time high of 293 lakhs and total insured area is expected to reach 365 lakh Ha registering a growth of more than 12%.

11. Flood Survey: Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare along with Sr officers from Ministry has visited Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to assess the flood situation. A central delegation also visited these states. A Report has been submitted to Hon’ble HM.

New Initiatives

Krishi Choupal

A new television and radio program named “Krishi Chaupal” marks an innovative step forward in the realm of agricultural education and outreach. Set to launch from October 2024, this initiative aims to bridge the gap between farmers and the latest agricultural research and technology, ensuring that vital information reaches those who need it most.

Objectives of KrishiChaupal are

Farmers Grievance Redressal System (FGRS)

 DA&FW would be setting up a farmers grievance redressal system to provide multilingual support to farmers in registering their grievances related to any of the related schemes and seek redressal within stipulated timelines under clearly defined process with steps. The FGRS platform will provide seamless, multi-channel (web portal through CSCs, mobile app, call centre support, IVR, etc.) support to farmers to register their queries or grievances related to disbursement of subsidies, technical support, extension services, and or any issues related to implementation of programs and schemes. It will provide real-time tracking of grievance status and automated updates on progress, ensuring transparency and keeping farmers informed.

The FGRS will integrate keyword-based systematic categorization and prioritization of issues based on severity to ensure efficient handling and escalation matrix to assign the grievance to the relevant Governments/ Divisions/PSU/ autonomous bodies/ cooperatives for addressing the grievance and develops response. The FGRs intends to provide multilingual support to farmers in registering their queries or grievances related to any of the related schemes and seek Redressal within stipulated timelines.

We have witnessed significant achievements in crop production as under :

 

Union Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan further told about the major achievements of the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in 100 days, which are as follows:

Major achievements of 100 days

Release of 109 climate resilient quality varieties and their future impact: During the last 100 days, 109 special trait varieties of 61 crops, including 34 food crops and 27 horticultural crops, were released and dedicated to the nation by the  Prime Minister. All these varieties are tolerant to various biotic and abiotic stresses such as insects, diseases, drought, waterlogging, heat, saline soil and some varieties are rich in high nutrients. As can be observed, climate change is becoming severe. These varieties will protect the farmer’s crops from damage in adverse conditions in future and the farmer will get his full yield instead of the entire crop getting destroyed.

Framework for delivering new varieties to farmers as soon as possible: ICAR, agricultural universities and states have together prepared a complete framework to deliver the seeds of these varieties to farmers as soon as possible. Indents for breeder seeds for the upcoming Rabi season crops have been taken from the states. Apart from this, for delivering these to farmers and the government seed production institutions at the earliest, the cooperation of farmers and private sector enterprises will also be taken in seed production.

Inclusion of seed production centers on SATHI Portal: In this sequence, the Ministry has on-boarded 266 centers producing breeder seeds on SATHI Portal, which will ensure traceability of seeds and help farmers in getting quality seeds.

Release of advanced agricultural techniques:100 different advanced agricultural techniques have been released which are proving to be effective in giving inputs to farmers in right quantity and time, reducing costs and saving crops from various diseases and insects.

Strategic plans to protect from climate change: To deal with climate change at the block level, strategic plans have been developed for 140 blocks (28 states and 4 union territories), which include selection of right varieties in case of drought, waterlogging due to excessive rain, flood, sea storm etc., methods of water conservation, methods of saving crops and livestock in case of waterlogging etc. and work is going on to expand it to more areas.

Development of AI-based apps/tools: 10 AI-based, low cost and high capacity apps/tools have been developed, including a special platform for AI based pest identification for 61 crops, through which farmers are uploading photos of pests and getting information about their name and control. In the last one month, more than 15000 farmers have downloaded this app and started using it. Similarly, nine other AI based tools/apps have been developed and made available to farmers for use, which will be a boon for farming in the coming times.

Making the admission system of agricultural education online and development of VIKAS app: Admission, accreditation and RAWE programs etc. in Agricultural Universities have been made completely online and according to the National Education Policy-2020, Graduate Courses in Agriculture have been developed by incorporating provisions like Multiple Entry/Multiple Exit, emphasis on entrepreneurship, which will be implemented from the coming academic session. Along with this, a mobile app “VIKAS” (Venture for Interaction of Kisan& Agri-Students) has been implemented under ‘Rural Awareness Work Experience (RAWE)’ for graduate students, which will increase the interest of students in agriculture as well as provide them in-depth information about various farming activities.

Training of farmers by KVK: In order to develop skills of youth and women through Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK), more than 65,000 farmers and youth have been trained under the Kushal Yuva program in the last 100 days, out of which 32465 are women and 32941 are male trainees.

Steps taken to promote natural farming: Research and evaluation work is going on to know the scientific facts of natural farming and a graduate level course has been developed. 1, 01,633 farmers were trained through 2,476 training programmes and 7,592 demonstrations were organised by 425 KVKs on natural farming. In addition, 11.37 lakh farmers and other stakeholders were covered through 11,341 awareness programmes.

 

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