Ours is a government fully committed to furthering the welfare of farmers...
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday hailed the union cabinet's decision to continue Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and restructured weather-based Crop Insurance Scheme and extend the one-time special package on di-ammonium phosphate beyond NBS subsidy from January 1 to December 31, 2025.
"Ours is a Government fully committed to furthering welfare of farmers. We are proud of all our farmer sisters and brothers who work hard to feed our nation. The first Cabinet of 2025 is dedicated to enhancing prosperity for our farmers. I am glad that key decisions have been taken in this regard," PM Modi said in a post on social media.
The Cabinet decision on extending the One-time Special Package on Di-Ammonium Phosphate will help our farmers by ensuring DAP at affordable prices," he added.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the extension of the One-time Special Package on Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) beyond the NBS subsidy for the period from January 1 this year till further orders to ensure sustainable availability of DAP at affordable prices to the farmers.
The tentative budgetary requirement would be approximately upto Rs 3,850 crore.
The Union Cabinet also approved the continuation of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme till 2025-26 with an overall outlay of Rs 69,515.71 crore from 2021-22 to 2025-26.
The decision will help in risk coverage of crops from non-preventable natural calamities for farmers across the country till 2025-26.
In addition, for large-scale technology infusion in the implementation of the scheme leading to increasing transparency and claim calculation and settlement, the Union Cabinet has also approved the creation of the Fund for Innovation and Technology (FIAT) with a corpus of Rs 824.77 crore.
The fund will be utilised towards funding technological initiatives under the scheme namely, YES-TECH, WINDS, as well as research and development studies.
The Yield Estimation System using Technology (YES-TECH) relies on remote sensing technology to estimate crop yields, with a minimum of 30 percent weightage assigned to technology-based yield assessments.
Nine major states, including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka, are implementing the system. Efforts are being made to quickly onboard other states. As YES-TECH becomes more widely adopted, traditional Crop Cutting Experiments and associated challenges will gradually be eliminated.
For the 2023-24 period, claim calculations and settlements under YES-TECH have been completed. Madhya Pradesh has fully embraced technology-based yield estimation across the state.
The government has stated that every effort is being made, and will continue, to ensure that farmers in the northeastern states are prioritized for coverage.
However, since the scheme is voluntary and the gross cropped area in the northeastern region is relatively small, flexibility has been allowed to prevent unused funds from being surrendered. These funds can instead be reallocated to other development projects and schemes that require financial support.
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