Rural Prosperity – September 2019 Part 3

21. Establishment of Too-Free Call Number for Both Curative and Diagnostic Services Call centre based approach for connecting people to doctor for non-emergency health situations. The population will be made aware of this number along with the contact details of appropriate providers. The trained health workforce can run these facilities and as per the need the call can be directed to the qualified doctors for appropriate device. The caller would be informed about ASHA, ANM and the nearest primary health centres of doctor and other services. Vaccination can be proactively delivered over the phone as well through dedicated centres.

22. Making Rural Health Facilities Ready for Disasters and Emergency Situation

By making use of the health services it is possible to mitigate the calamities of natural disasters like flood, cyclones, Earthquakes etc.

The action needs to be taken and coordinated both at the national level and state level.

23. Convergence of Public Delivery in Rural India

Establishing service delivery hubs at Panchayat Level where all basic services like banking, HealthCare, post office, schools, Anganwadi Centres, Nutrition centres etc can be located within a single compound being identified and owned by the Panchayats.

Conclusion

For rural health agenda in India a lot more is needed.

It is proposed to rapidly recruit and post Community Health Providers (CHP) , establishing toll free call numbers for both curative and diagnostic services, making rural health facilities ready for disaster and emergency situations, starting many new non- health initiatives for a bigger health impact, Grand convergence of public service delivery in India.

24. Empowering Farmers through Initiatives in Agriculture

Under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Pension Yojana, small and marginal farmers will get a minimum fixed pension of ₹ 3,000 per month on attaining the age of 60 years.

The Union Cabinet of India in its very first meeting announced ₹ 10,000 crore pension scheme for 5 crore farmers.

The entry age is 18 - 40 years.

Under PM-KISAN scheme the Government is offering ₹ 6,000 to 14.5 crore farmers in a year.

The crop loan to farmers has increased to ₹ 11.68 lakh crore apart from the interest subvention being doubled.

For farmers engaged in fisheries and animal husbandry, a 2% interest subvention was introduced with loans to be availed by Kisan Credit Card.

An additional 3% interest will be provided to those who repay the loan on time.

25. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana

Nearly half of the area under cultivation in the country is Rainfed.

There is a need to expand the area having access to water.

60% of the available water resources is being consumed by agriculture.

Schemes like Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana have made a great effort to bring in more areas under irrigated agriculture.

Under PMKSY, approximately 1484 crores have been sanctioned in 2017. The aim is to cover 39 lakh hectares of land.

Under the PMKSY, the micro irrigation scheme has added 6 lakh ha in the current year against a target of 11 lakh ha.

This Yojana was launched to address the challenges of the Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) .

The aim is to ensure more crop per drop which will be covering 28.5 lakh hectare area under irrigation.

In order to make sure that every farm gets water ₹ 50,000 crore is earmarked. Also ₹ 5,000 crore fund for micro-irrigation has been made available with the encouragement for farmers to install solar pumps for irrigation.

The private sector constitutes less than 2.5% share in total investments in agriculture.

In 2019, the total allocation for Union Budget has been increased to ₹ 1,51, 500 crore from ₹ 86,600 crore in the Revised budget Estimate. The fertilizer subsidy has been excluded.

In core and central schemes for crops, livestock and, price intervention and MSP there is 6 - 50% increment excluding wheat and paddy.

26. Soil Health Card

The Government of India has dispatched more than 13 crore Soil Health Cards from 2015 to 2018.

The Soil Health Cards carry crop-specific recommendations for nutrients and fertilizers to help farmers improve their productivity.

To boost the growth of wheat and paddy, a fertilizer and an agricultural scheme was launched by the Government of India. This Also includes curbing the black marketeering and hoarding of urea.

The Urea which is coated with neem tree seed oil is known as neem-coated urea.

The government of India mandated the urea manufacturers to increase the neem coated urea production from 35% to 75% .

The efficiency of 10% nitrogen usage is increased in comparison with the uncoated urea thereby saving 105 urea.

A special budget of ₹ 10,000 crore has also been proposed to clear fertilizer subsidy.

28. Credit for Farmers and Marketing the Farmers Produce (e-NAM)

The aim is to save farmers from exploitation at the hands of informal credit sources such as moneylanders.

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana was launched as the biggest risk cover and safety net being provided by the government.

Short term crop loans up to ₹ 3 lakh with the interest rate of 7% per annum has been made available under the interest subvention scheme.

The govt. approve the historic MSP hike for Kharif Crops to 1.5 times the cost. This will provide farmers a profit margin of 50% over the cost of production.

e-NAM, A National Agricultural Market Scheme has integrated 585 markets across 16 States and 2 Union territories.

More than 164.53 lakh tonnes of farm commodities have been transacted on e-NAM along with the registration of more than 87 lakh farmers.

86% small farmers will be benefitted with 22,000 Rural Haats being turned into Gramin Agriculture Market.

29. Operation Green

Operation Green has been put in place to address the price volatility of perishable items like tomato, potato and onion.

The Government has announced ₹ 500 crores for initiating Operation Green due to the fluctuating prices for key crops such as tomato, potato and onion (TOP) .

The primary objective is to stabilize the demand-supply situation for these crops in-order to control disparity.

India produces around 19 million tonnes of tomato every year. The leading states are Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh contribute to around 30% of the total tomato production.

One of the key challenges is the Technology innovation for implementing low cost and durable multimodal solutions.

30. Micro Irrigation Fund (MIF)

The MIF will facilitate the states in incentivizing and mobilizing resources for achieving the target envisaged under PMKSY-PDMC.

MIF created with NABARD has been approved with an initial corpus ₹ 5,000 crore (₹ 2000 crore for 2018 - 19 7 ₹ 3000 crore for 2019 - 20) so as to encourage public and private investments in Micro irrigation.

The primary objective of the fund is to facilitate the states in mobilizing the resources for expanding coverage of Micro Irrigation.

To ensure effective planning and policy direction, an Advisory Committee has been set up along with the planning and coordination and monitoring of the Micro irrigation Fund.

Examrace Team at Aug 25, 2021