PDS Reforms | Rajasthan

Reforms:

• Currently ration shops in Rajasthan stock only three items (wheat, sugar and kerosene), are open only one week a month, treat citizens poorly, and have high subsidy leakage because we lack the online infrastructure to cross reference inventory, consumption and eligibility. 
• Over the next year the state government will rebrand 5,000 of our 25,542 ration shops in a public private partnership as Annapurna Bhandars: They will stay open all month, sell more than 150 products at prices regulated by the government, start home delivery and join an online platform.
• In parallel, all families with state government issued Bhamashah cards will have the option to choose between direct cash credit of subsidies to bank accounts or getting non-cash subsidised goods that trigger an SMS to their cellphone when their eligibility amount is issued by any ration shop
• De-duplicated Bhamashah database will issue a card to every family that will be linked to a bank account in the name of the lady of the house. 
• Bhamashah’s Aadhaar authenticated database makes it an effective platform for financial inclusion, health insurance, ration shops, education scholarships, Mgnrega payments, and much else – because all families will receive an SMS for all cash or non-cash transactions linked to their card.

Rationale:

• spending that doesn’t reach the needy is not only wasteful but represents stealing from future generations.
• Much of the Rs 80,000 crore outstanding debt of the Rajasthan State Electricity Board represents wasteful subsidies that could have been spent on roads, education or skills. A former prime minister once said that only 15% of government expenditure reaches the poor; clearly his realisation was not shared by the last central government which bafflingly cancelled the implementation of Aadhaar verification for gas cylinder subsidy just before the last Lok Sabha election.

Conclusion:
 

The wisdom of balance in governance is hardly new; the magnificent ruins at Hampi of the Vijaynagara Empire have a horizontal band of three animal sculptures at the bottom of every building; tigers (for courage), horses (for speed) and elephants (for stability). This grouping has an important message for state governments that often choose the status quo over boldness, innovation and experimentation.

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Agriculture Sector Challenges and Role of Technology - seeds, water and markets

Challenges in Agriculture sector:

• Rain deficit in the current monsoon season stood at (-)12 per cent of the long period average (LPA)till August end - if it continues for 1 more month -- technically, like last year, this would also be a drought year. 
• It would be the fourth back-to-back drought in the last 115 years.
• For the last three years, the average agri-GDP growth rate is just 1.7 per cent, and if this year goes the same, it would be the worst performance for agriculture in the four years of the 12th Plan, which targets 4 per cent growth in agriculture.

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Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana | Organic Farming

Details:

Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (Traditional Farming Improvement Programme) ---> to support and promote organic farming and thereby improving soil health by encouraging farmers to adopt eco-friendly concept of cultivation and reduce fertilizers and chemicals use.

The Organic Farming Policy 2005 

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Krishyonnati Yojana

Krishyonnati Yojana is envisaged as umbrella programme focusing on food security, by merging
following schemes on Agriculture:

• Soil Health Card, 
• Integrated scheme on agricultural co-operation and Agricultural Marketing,
• National Mission on Agriculture extension, 
• horticulture development, 
• price stabilization Fund, 
• National Mission on sustainable agriculture 
• Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, 
• National Food Security Mission.

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Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY)

Why in news?
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has given its approval to a new scheme the “Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana” (PMKSY).  It will have an outlay of Rs. 50,000 crore over a period of five years (2015-16 to 2019-20). The allocation for the current financial year is Rs. 5300 crore.

Details:

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Honey Bees | Apiculture in India

Source: Economic Times

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Agriculture Distress | Reasons and Solutions

Background

• Global Slowdown yet India remains a bright spot; but agriculture remains a concern.
• Jaitley promised that as tax revenue goes up, an increasing share would be spent on building a strong and vibrant agricultural sector. 
• Nabard
• estd: 1982 (33 years in 2015)
• Functions like: 
• Extending rural credit for myriad programmes ranging from rural roads and irrigation under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF)
• Building value chains with farmer producer organisations (FPOs) and micro-finance initiatives. 
• Latest - First national implementing entity (NIE) of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) of UNFCCC. 
• As an NIE, Nabard is supposed to lead and promote work on climate change adaptation and mitigation, especially in agriculture and rural development activities. 
• First three years of the 12th Plan (2012-17), the average rate of growth in agri-GDP has been a mere 1.7 per cent against a target of 4 per cent --> Agrarian distress --> Cause of concern
• Nabard chose “mitigating agrarian distress and enhancing farm income” as a suitable topic for discussion, which was inaugurated by Jaitley. 
•  In discharging its role as a facilitator for rural prosperity NABARD is entrusted with
• • Providing refinance to lending institutions in rural areas
  • Bringing about or promoting institutional development and
  • Evaluating, monitoring and inspecting the client banks
  Besides this pivotal role, NABARD also:
  • Acts as a coordinator in the operations of rural credit institutions
  • Extends assistance to the government, the Reserve Bank of India and other organizations in matters relating to rural development
  • Offers training and research facilities for banks, cooperatives and organizations working in the field of rural development
  • Helps the state governments in reaching their targets of providing assistance to eligible institutions in agriculture and rural development
  • Acts as regulator for cooperative banks and RRBs

Take aways from the above lecture (very important as the content is by several brilliant speakers who have devoted their lives to Indian agriculture and rural development.) 

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Pseudo-cereals | Chia and Quinoa Seeds

Why in news?

• Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore (CSIR) is developing indigenous varieties of ‘super foods’ chia and quinoa to make the nutrition-rich grains affordable for Indian consumers.
• Seeds of these plants are currently imported from Australia, the US and South American countries like Bolivia, and are sold at around Rs 2,000 per kg.
• What is helpful for Indian soil conditions is that these two crops require very little water.
• Farmers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were the first to receive these improvised seeds, and they have found it to be very profitable

What are Pseudocereals?

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Agriculture Insurance Reforms | Drones, Doves, GPS Devices, FIIS

How can we insure our farmers from extreme weather risks?

• Long run: invest more in irrigation and better water management. 
• Short term: crop insurance system needs an overhaul. 
• Two issues have to be sorted out: 
1. the appropriate level of coverage in terms of area, insurance per hectare (ha), and subsidy on premiums; 
2. how new technologies like drones, doves and low earth orbiters (LEOs) -->  used to monitor crops and assess damage.

Need for Agriculture Insurance:

• ~ 60% of rural households are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood.
• 85% small and marginal farmers
• Monsoon- uncertainty  -->  in production and in price of agricultural produce.
• >50% of farmers/households are at risk of defaulting on their debts (banks or informal moneylenders) ---> vulnerability at the household level -->  primary factor for farmer suicides
• Low prices of produce because of 
• increased global production and 
• lower demand for various commodities.
• Increasing input costs in agriculture and the alarming increase in consumption expenditure vis- à-vis income.
• Many measures (MSP, subsidies, insurance, schemes) BUT issues of:
• Exclusion
• Benefit of MSP is mainly appropriated by big farmers.
• Subsidies have to leakage and corruption.
• Climate change 
• WTO’s anti-MSP stress 

Let's understand the crop insurance in more detail:

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Mulching | Definition, Benefits and its Popularity

Mulching 

• Just after sowing of crop a protective layer of material to the field soil surface is applied. This is called mulching
• The material could be 
• organic and biodegradable 



Mulching

• Paddy straw, sugarcane bark, dry grass, trees leaves and even newspaper, wool, animal manure, saw dust, wood chips, peat moss etc
• inorganic and non biodegradable
• polythene sheets, rubber, plastic etc..

Benefits

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National Agriculture Market (NAM)

Why in news?
Govt approved the setting up of an online national agriculture market that will provide more options to farmers for selling their produce 

What is the current practice in agriculture marketing?

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Pulses | Production, Yield, MSP

Why in news?

• In his Mann Ki Baat address on Sunday, Mr. Modi had asked farmers to increase the production of pulses so that India no longer needed to import them.
• 20% of the country’s supply of pulses is imported

Why farmers prefer to grow cereals rather than pulses?

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E-Technology in Agriculture | Insurance Web-portal, Nowcast, mKisan

Why in news?

Union Agriculture Minister Launched Nowcast and Insurance Web-Portals for Farmers.

Under NeGP - A

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Difference between Cereals and Millets

Difference	Cereals	Millets
Origin of word/Meaning	From greek Goddess Ceres, whom Romans worshipped as giver of grain. Cereals are the grasses that belong to the ‘Graminaceae family’.  They generally require more rainfall than millets	Term is applied to several species of cereals which produce small grains compared to maize.  Millet is a small grained annual cereal and forage grass that is widely grown in dry regions.
Total Number	Main cereals: Barley, Maize, Oats, Rice, Rye, wheat, Sorghum etc.	Main Millets are: Pearl Millet, Pros MIllet, Foxtail MIllet, Jowar and Ragi (aka Finger Millet)

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