Inform Farmer Before Helping Him
The Primary sector got lion’s share in Union Budget 2018. Government announced many schemes and benefits for agriculture. Some of those are, 2000cr fund for development of agri- markets, minimum support price for all crops with the hike of 1.5 times of production costs, direct roads from remote villages to market yards, and easy loan facilities.
In recent times, the incidence of suicides of farmers has gone up sharply. Most of these schemes are beneficial for farmers if they work well in-time.
It’s laudable that Swaminathan’s commission’s recommendation for the support price has been considered. Among the schemes for farmers, the most important one is PMFBY (Pradhan Mantri Facil Bhima Yojana). It’s not enough to introduce schemes benefitting farmers. The Government should make them aware too.
PMFBY (Pradhan Mantri Facil Bhima Yojana) was launched in April 2016, to compensate farmers for any loses in crop yields. In the event of a crop loss, the farmer will be paid based on the difference between the threshold yield and actual yield. But this is only applicable for those who enroll with PMFBY. In many rural areas people have no knowledge of the scheme even today.
