The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the ‘Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana’ (PMDDKY), which envisages development of 100 agricultural districts through the convergence of existing schemes with an annual outlay of Rs 24,000 crore per year.
“The scheme will be implemented through convergence of 36 existing schemes across 11 departments, other State schemes and local partnerships with the private sector,” said an official statement issued after the Cabinet meeting.
At a briefing on the Cabinet’s decisions, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the scheme would be implemented for six years beginning from 2025-26. “A master plan will be prepared for each district. It will include agriculture and other allied activities,” Vaishnaw said. He said the scheme would benefit about 1.7 crore farmers.
The scheme was first announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech earlier this year.
Saying that the government was “motivated by the success of the aspirational districts programme”, she had said the scheme would cover “100 districts with low productivity, moderate crop intensity and below-average credit parameters”.
Cropping intensity is a measure of how efficiently land is used — the number of crops grown in the area in an agricultural year (July-June).
“One hundred districts will be identified based on three key indicators of low productivity, low cropping intensity, and less credit disbursement. The number of districts in each state/ Union Territory will be based on the share of net cropped area and operational holdings. However, a minimum of one district will be selected from each state,” the official statement said on Wednesday.
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“The scheme aims to enhance agricultural productivity, increase adoption of crop diversification and sustainable agricultural practices, augment post-harvest storage at the panchayat and block levels, improve irrigation facilities and facilitate availability of long-term and short-term credit,” it said.
According to the statement, committees will be formed at the district, state and national levels for effective planning, implementation and monitoring of the scheme. Central nodal officers will be appointed for field visits, review and monitoring.
A district agriculture and allied activities plan will be finalised by the District Dhan Dhaanya Samiti, which will be headed by the district collector and include progressive farmers as members. “The district plans will be aligned to the national goals of crop diversification, conservation of water and soil health, self-sufficiency in agriculture and allied sectors as well as expansion of natural and organic farming,” the statement said.
In addition, Central and State agriculture universities will be assigned each district as technical knowledge partner.
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The scheme is designed on the lines of the ‘Aspirational Districts Programme’ that was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2018 in 112 most under-developed districts across the country.
In PMDDKY too, the Dhan-Dhaanya districts will be ranked based on their performance. A portal/ dashboard will be developed to monitor the progress of the scheme in each district on 117 key performance indicators on a monthly basis, said the statement.
“As the targeted outcomes in these 100 districts will improve, the overall average against key performance indicators will rise for the country. The scheme will result in higher productivity, value addition in agriculture and allied sector, local livelihood creation and hence increase domestic production and achieve self-reliance (Atmanirbhar Bharat). As the indicators of these 100 districts improve, the national indicators will automatically show an upward trajectory,” it said.
