#Budget2019 Agriculture: DBT Of Rs 6,000 For Farmers With Less Than 2 Hectares Retrospectively From 1 December

In Budget 2019, Piyush Goyal has announced a new scheme, Kisan Samman Nidhi. Under it, the government will provide Rs 6,000 cash through direct benefits transfer (DBT) to small and marginal farmers who own less than two hectares of productive land retrospectively from 1 December 2018.

This initiative will benefit 12 crore small and marginal farmers, at an estimated cost of Rs. 75,000 crore, this will enable farmers to earn a respectable living, said the Finance Minister.

Also in a historic decision, the government has announced to increase the minimum support price (MSP) by 1.5 times for all 22 crops.

This money can be used by the farmers to purchase farm inputs like seeds, fertilizers and other machinery to improve the productivity of their land. A similar scheme was successfully implemented by the Telangana government as Ryuthu Bandhu project.

Economists have noted that by directly transferring subsidies to the bank accounts of farmers, exclusion and inclusion errors as well as ghost beneficiaries can be eliminated.

The government has also put emphasis on animal husbandry and fishery providing them interest subvention of 2 per cent.

The Finance Minister said that in place of rescheduling of crop loans, all farmers severely affected by severe natural calamities will get 2 per cent interest subvention and additional 3 interest interest subvention upon timely repayment. The announcement comes in pursuit of government’s goal of doubling farmers’ income by 2022.

Goyal also outlined several measures taken by the Prime Minister Modi-led government in its tenure for the benefit of farmers. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana replaced the earlier cumbersome versions of the insurance scheme for farmers while providing an assured payment in case of loss, without any cap. Apart from this several schemes for provision of irrigation facilities, high quality seeds etc were formulated by the government.