Measures to Support Agriculture 2022-23
Source : PIB
GS III : Food and Agriculture

Points discussed under Measures to Support Agriculture 2022-23

1. Budget Allocation-Production-Procurement
2. Organic farming in the country
3. Agri Infrastructure Fund
4. Export of Agri and Allied Agri- Commodities

Why in News ?

Year-End Review -2022: Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.

Key Facts

Budget Allocation-Production-Procurement

• The Ministry of Agriculture and Food’s budgetary allotment for 2022–2023 has been raised to Rs. 1,24,000 crore.

  

• From 308.65 million tonnes in January 2022 to 315.72 million tonnes in December 2022, food grain production has grown.
• Horticulture production grew from 331.05 million MT in 2020–21 to 342.33 million MT in 2021–22.
• Under procurement of Kharif 2022-23 season, a quantity of 1,03,830.50 MT of pulses, oilseeds & copra having MSP Value of Rs. 915.79 crore benefiting 61,339 farmers has been procured till December, 2022.

Important Scheme and Outcomes

1. National Mission for Edible Oils
   • NMEO) has been approved with a total outlay of Rs 11,040 crore.
   • If the price paid by industry is less than the viability price up until October 2037, the Central Government will make a viability gap payment to farmers as compensation.
2. PM KISAN
   • Income support scheme to farmers providing Rs. 6000 per year in 3 equal installments launched in 2019.
   • Rs. 2 lakh crore had already been distributed to more than 11 crore eligible farmers as of December 2022.
3. Pradhan Mantri Fasal BimaYojana
   • Addressing problems of high premium rates for farmers and reduction in sum insured due to capping.
   • For every 100 rupees of premium paid by farmers, they received Rs. 484 as claims whereas till December, 2022 nearly Rs. 25,192 crore were paid by farmers as their share of premium against which claims of over Rs. 1,28,522 crore (Provisional) have been paid to them.
4. Institutional Credit for Agriculture Sector
   • Institutional credit for agriculture sector  has been increased to Rs. 18.5 lakh crore in December, 2022.
   • Benefit of concessional institutional credit through KCC at 4% interest per annum has also now been extended to Animal Husbandry and Fisheries.
5. Providing Soil Health Cards
   • Soil Health Card Scheme was introduced in the year 2014-15 to optimize usage of nutrients. The following number of cards have been issued to farmers.
   • Progress : Cycle-I (2015 to 2017) – 10.74 crore, Cycle-II (2017 to 2019)- 11.97 crore, Model Village Programme (2019-20)- 19.64 lakh

Organic farming in the country

• To promote sustainable natural farming systems through the scheme Bhartiya Prakratik Krishi Padhati (BPKP) scheme proposed.
• Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) was initiated in 2015-16 and 30934 clusters were formed upto January 2022.
• Mission Organic Value Chain Development in North East Region (MOVCDNER) has been launched and till December, 2022, 379 Farmer Producer Companies have been formed comprising of 189039 farmers and covering 172966 ha area.
• New Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) certification was launched during 2015, till December, 2022, 13.98 lakh small and marginal farmers are certified under PGS certification. 

Agri Infrastructure Fund

• Scheme sanctioned till December, 2022 Rs. 13,681 Crore worth agriculture infrastructure in the country for more than 18133 projects.
• Benefits upto December, 2022 to 8076 warehouses, 2788 primary processing units, 1860 custom hiring centers, 937 sorting & grading units, 696 cold store projects, 163 assaying units and around 3613 other kinds of post-harvest management projects and community farming assets.

Micro Irrigation Fund

• A Micro Irrigation Fund of initial corpus Rs 5000 crore has been created with NABARD.
• In the Budget Announcement for 2021-22, the corpus of the fund is to be increased to Rs.10000 crores.
• Upto December, 2022 projects worth 4710.96 crore covering 17.09 lakh hectares have been approved.

Agricultural Mechanization

• Numbers of machines and equipments provided to farmers which has increased to 13,88,314 in December, 2022.
• To address air pollution due to crop residue burning, funds amounting to Rs.2440.07 crores have been released to Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi for crop residue management through mechanization interventions.

Start-up Eco system

• Till  December 2022 1055 Startups were finally selected by different Knowledge Partners (KPs) and Agribusiness Incubators (R-ABIs).
• Rs. 6317.91 lakhs grants-in-aid has been released in installments to the respective KPs & R-ABIs as support.

Export of Agri and Allied Agri- Commodities

• As compared to previous year 2020-21, the Agri and allied export has increased from 41.86 billion USD in 2020-21 to 50.24 billion USD in 2021-22 i.e. an increase of 19.99%.
• The major commodities having significant growth is
  • Wheat 273.54% 
  • Basmati Rice 27.29%
  • Cotton raw including waste 48.43%
  • Castor Oil 28.16%
  • Other cereals 53.82%
  • Coffee 41.84%
  • Fresh Fruits 14.11%

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