Agriculture is the backbone of our country, this is something we’ve been taught since we were in school. But, as we all grew up, we saw more and more news where farmers were committing suicides and they were not being given fair chances and benefits of doubt about the yields, which are not only dependant on their hard-work but also various other factors, which are not in their hands like rains, soil quality, sunlight etc.
For a really long time, in our country, the farmers faced these problems and could not provide for their families, which made them indebted and guilt-ridden and in a way forced a lot of our farmers to end their lives. To make the situation better, the Modi government decided to take some steps and help the farmers in getting back up on their feet by helping them in paying their debts back and getting a good value for their yield. The main idea behind helping farmers was not to pay off their debts or consider their loans settled but to make them capable of paying off their loans eventually.
One of the things that have been done for the farmers is the launch of PM KISAN Yojana which has been launched in 2019. Under this scheme, Rs. 6,000/- will be given per year to small and marginal farmer families having combined land holding/ownership of upto 2 hectares. This amount will be given in three installments of Rs. 2,000/- each. The purpose of launching this scheme, was to help the farmers in augmenting their finances and to make better investments for a crop production. The PM-KISAN scheme aims to supplement the financial needs of the SMFs in procuring various inputs to ensure proper crop health and appropriate yields, commensurate with the anticipated farm income at the end of each crop cycle. This would also protect them from falling in the clutches of moneylenders for meeting such expenses and ensure their continuance in the farming activities.
To keep the farmers motivated and to ensure that they don’t have to suffer huge losses due to any misfortune with crops, the Modi government also launched a crop insurance scheme. This new crop insurance scheme mitigates risk at an affordable cost and along with that make sure that the morales of the farmers are kept high by ensuring minimum damage. This is a big step towards not only helping farmers but also, in a way making improving the system by putting the previous schemes under one banner and giving insurance to all kharif crops, rabi crops and horticulture. Under the new crop insurance scheme, the entire premium is paid by the Modi government and there’s no cap on the premium either. The coverage of this scheme is wider as it covers losses due to destruction if any kind like drought or flooding etc. Since its launch in 2016, 14,24,00,000 farmers have been benefited by this scheme. These numbers show that the farmers are taking benefit of the new improved scheme and insuring their crops guaranteeing a safer output for their hard-work.
Various other measures like raising the farm credit target to Rs.11 lakh crores for 2018-19, setting up the agri-market infrastructure fund to Rs.2,000 crore, corpus of Rs.10,000 crore to create infrastructure in fisheries, aquaculture and animal husbandry sectors have been introduced. Tax incentives have been launched to promote post-harvest agriculture activities. To help set up small industries, Rs.1290 crore have been allocated under National Bamboo Mission. Monetary initiatives like these bring to the forefront what was missing from the previous government’s handbook of helping the farmers, and is now being given attention and efforts.
The Modi government understood that the damages caused due to excessive rainfall had to be beared by the farmers and to help them during those hard times, a minimum support price has been introduced. MSP is the fixed price that is given by the government to the farmers to protect them against a sharp fall in prices during the production season. This money make sure that the farmers are protected during distressed sales.
To make the buying/selling process smoother, a platform has been launched called e-NAM (Electronic- National Agriculture Market). More than 1.41 crore farmers and sellers are registered on this website and over 2.25 crore tonnes of farm commodities worth Rs.58,930 crore have been transacted over this portal. This linking of agriculture with technology is making the entire process easier and more accessible.
So, not only in one way, but the Modi government is helping the farmers in every step of the process by launching new schemes and making the web-based buying/selling process easier. Farmers provide us with the food we eat, and everyone who is involved in the process of getting that food on the table should not only be thanked but also be given everything they deserve and stand for. Finally, this is becoming a reality, slowly but surely.
