SCHEME DETAILS: PRADHAN MANTRI KRISHI SINCHAI YOJANA

The Indian economy is extremely dependent on the agricultural sector. A huge population basically translates into a need to address the rising food demands each year. And this dependency is best seen in a year when because of abnormal monsoon the prices of food items touch skies.

Over the past years, fears of the El Nino phenomenon have kept farmers and economists concerned. A number of farmer deaths have also been recorded across the country. Most of these are associated to crop failure followed by lack of rainfall and insufficient irrigation. Food and retail inflation are natural consequences of the situation and this affects the economy badly. In 2014-15, foodgrain production in the country decreased by about 5.3 per cent.

In an effort to improve the agricultural productivity, the Indian government has come up with a new scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY). According to news reports, the details of the scheme was finalized by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) which is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the cabinet has “decided that INR 50,000 crore from the central budget, over the period of 5 years, would be used for the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana. States’ share will be over and above this”. The entire money shall be spent towards improving farm yields and productivity, he said. The spending target, for the current financial year is about INR 5300 crore. This is almost twice the corpus set aside for any agricultural irrigation scheme in previous budgets. Over and above the central government’s allocation, different states shall add their funds to the scheme.