MUMBAI: As Maharashtra progresses towards the elections, the Shinde-Fadnavis government has decided to roll out two new schemes for the agrarian community, which together will burden the state exchequer by ₹10,000 crore per annum.
The first scheme, called the ‘Namo Shetkari Mahasanman Yojana’ (NSMY), will gift farmers an annual cash benefit of ₹6,000, at a cost of ₹6,000 crore to ₹7,000 crore to the exchequer, while the second will give them crop insurance for just Re 1. Both schemes, announced in the budget, were approved in the state cabinet meeting held on Tuesday. More than a million farmers are expected to get the benefit of the schemes which are being regarded by farmer leaders as “populist”.
The NSMY scheme has been formulated on the lines of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, under which farmers get ₹6,000 a year as minimum income support. “Like Modi ji gives ₹6,000 to farmers, the state government also will,” Fadnavis told reporters after the cabinet meeting. “The funds will be released along with the central funds so that farmers get ₹12,000 every year.”
The crop insurance scheme is actually the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), under which the government provides crop insurance to farmers at a highly subsidised premium. Farmers pay only two percent of the premium amount while the rest is equally divided between the state and central governments. With the state cabinet decision to take the full burden of the premium, farmers will not have to pay even a two percent premium. The scheme is expected to cost the state exchequer ₹3,312 crore per annum.
During the kharif season in FY 2022-23, 96.61 lakh farmers registered for the central insurance scheme. Approximately 57.63 lakh hectares of farm land was insured by paying a total premium of ₹4,414.53 crore. For the rabi season (2022-23), the number of beneficiaries was 7.43 lakh and a premium of ₹276.53 crore was paid to insure 5.34 lakh hectares of land.
Fadnavis said that the cabinet had also decided to extend the Panjabrao Deshmukh Organic Farming Mission, which has so far been implemented in six districts, to all districts of the state at a cost of ₹2,900 crore. “In the coming years, we aim to bring 25 lakh hectares of land under organic farming,” he said. “In the first phase, 13 lakh farmers will be trained for organic farming and over 1,000 laboratories will be set up to certify the produce.”
Farmers’ outfits, however, have opposed the move and said that the government is trying to make the agrarian community dependent on it in order to take advantage during the elections. “The prices of agricultural produce such as onion and cotton are going down. This is like not giving farmers proper remuneration for their hard work but creating a financial burden of crores of rupees on the exchequer in their name,” said Ajit Nawale, joint secretary, Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Sabha (ABKS). Nawale added that the decision would not resolve the agrarian crisis.
ABKS has been fighting for the rights of the agrarian community and has organised several long farmers’ marches since March 2018. “Farmers were demanding appropriate compensation for their produce in case of natural calamities, but the state did not take any decision on that,” he said. “They have never demanded that the crop insurance premium be waived instead.”
