Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana
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.
Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana Group Discussion Articles |
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.
Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana Group Discussion Articles
Reviewed by Newstechcafe
on
July 23, 2015
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