The
Indian economy is highly dependent on the agricultural sector. A huge
population essentially translates into a need to address the growing food
demands each year. This dependency is best seen in a year when a below-normal
monsoon sends prices of food items ratcheting up.
Over the past years, fears of the
El Nino phenomenon have kept farmers and economists worried. A number of farmer
deaths have also been recorded across the country. Most of these are linked to
crop failure followed by lack of rainfall and inadequate irrigation. Food and
retail inflation are natural corollaries to the situation and this hurts the
economy. In 2014-15, foodgrain production in the country dropped by about 5.3
per cent.
In an attempt to improve the
agricultural productivity, the government of India has come up with a new
scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY). According to news
reports, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), which is chaired by
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, finalised the details of the scheme.
Indian Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley said that the cabinet has “decided that in 5 years, INR 50,000 crore
from the central budget would be utilised for the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai
Yojana. States’ share will be over and above this”. The money shall be spent
entirely towards improving farm yields and productivity, he said. The spending
target, under the scheme, for the current financial year is about INR 5300
crore. This is almost twice the corpus set aside for any agricultural
irrigation scheme in earlier budgets. Over and above the central government’s
allocation, states shall add their funds to the scheme.
If the scheme turns out to be a
success, economists and rural managers believe that the crop production could
witness a manifold growth.
Details of the Pradhan Mantri
Krishi Sinchai Yojana
According to current estimates,
out of the 142 million hectares of agricultural land in India, only about 45
per cent has any arrangement for artificial irrigation. The rest of the
agricultural farm is dependent solely on rainfall for its water needs. A delay
in rainfall or a failure spells disaster for the farmers and shortfall in crop
is the subsequent worry faced by the people. The government of India estimates
that by spending about INR 5300 crore this fiscal, an additional 6 lakh
hectares of agricultural land can be brought under irrigation. Apart from this,
5 lakh hectares of land will also receive the benefits of drip irrigation as a
result. Micro-irrigation projects (“Har Khet Ko Pani”) and end-to-end
irrigation solutions will be the key focus of this scheme.
The scheme shall also assume
responsibility for various irrigation projects that were poorly implemented by
previous governments despite adequacy of funds. These projects shall be
improved based on strict quality guidelines. About 1,300 watershed projects
that have remained in limbo shall now be completed.
According to news reports, the
Finance Minister said, “The major objective of the PMKSY is to achieve
convergence of investments in irrigation at the field level, expand cultivable
area under assured irrigation, improve on-farm water use efficiency to reduce
wastage of water, enhance adoption of precision-irrigation and other
water-saving technologies”.
Apart from the irrigation
projects, INR 200 crore from this scheme will be earmarked as Agri-Tech
Infrastructure Fund (ATIF) – the corpus required to promote the National
Agricultural Market (NAM). This will give farmers easy access to the markets
for sale of their produce. The FM also said that the budgetary allocation for
this scheme may tie into the material component of the MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act).
Irrigation and Water
Conservation
Water conservation and cutting
down on wastage is key to bringing irrigation facilities to every farm in the
country. This makes introduction of sustainable water preservation practices
and optimisation of water resources (More Crop Per Drop) just as important as
introduction of new irrigation facilities. The PMKSY shall also explore a
number of methods to treat and re-use municipal water for these irrigation
projects. Water recycling shall hold much importance in the success of the
scheme, said the FM. Private investments in these plans shall also be solicited
by the government.
Programme Structure
The planning and implementation of
the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana has been decentralised and the states
shall now draw district-level plans for its successful execution.
The long-term adherence to these
District Irrigation Plans (DIP) and State Irrigation Plans (SIP) will be supervised
by a National Steering Committee (NSC) with representation from the various
ministries involved and shall be monitored by the Union Ministers. The Prime
Minister himself shall chair the committee.
The implementation of the scheme
shall be overseen by a National Executive Committee (NEC), which shall be
chaired by the Vice-Chairman of the NITI Aayog.
PMKSY and Pro-farmer Schemes
The Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai
Yojana is part of a group of pro-farmer measures that the NDA government
endeavours to implement. Earlier, the Cabinet led by Modi agreed on various
amendments to the Land Acquisition Act of 2013, which are likely to benefit
those farmers whose lands are acquired by the central government for
implementation of various projects. Apart from these, the NDA government has
launched a number of social security schemes (pension, insurance schemes etc.)
targeted at improving the lot of the poor masses in the country, with specific
emphasis on the rural poor. Earlier this year, the government had launched the
Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana – a scheme to support organic farming
endeavours.
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