The Union Cabinet has approved the continuation of schemes of Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay SanraksHan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA) to provide remunerative prices to farmers and to control price volatility of essential commodities for consumers.
Key features
The total financial outgo will be Rs. 35,000 crore during 15th Finance Commission Cycle upto 2025-26.
The Government has converged the Price Support Scheme (PSS) & Price Stabilization Fund (PSF) schemes in PM AASHA to serve the farmers and consumers more efficiently.
PM-AASHA will now have the components of Price Support scheme (PSS) ,Price Stabilization Fund (PSF) , Price Deficit Payment Scheme (POPS) and Market Intervention Scheme (MIS).
The procurement of notified pulses, oilseeds & copra at MSP under Price Support Scheme will be on 25% of national Production of these notified crops from 2024-25 season onwards. However, this ceiling will not be applicable in case of Tur, Urad & Masur for 2024-25 season as there will be a 100 % procurement of Tur, Urad & Masur during in 2024-25 season as decided earlier.
The Government has renewed and enhanced the existing government guarantee to Rs.45,000 crore for procurement of notified pulses, oilseeds & copra at MSP from farmers.
Procurement of pulses at market price will be done by Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) including Pre-registered farmers on eSamridhi portal of NAFED and eSamyukti portal of NCCF whenever prices rule above MSP in the market.
Apart from buffer maintenance, the interventions under PSF scheme have been undertaken in other crops such as Tomato and in subsidized retail sale of Bharat DaIs, Bharat Atta and Bharat Rice.
In order to encourage the states to come forward for implementation of Price Deficit Payment Scheme (PDPS) as an option for Notified oilseeds, the coverage has been enhanced from existing 25% of state production of oilseeds to 40% and also enhanced the implementation period from 3 months to 4 months for the benefits of farmers. T
he compensation of difference between MSP and Sale/Modal price to be borne by Central Government is limited to 15% of MSP. The Government has increased the coverage from 20% to 25% of production and has added a new option of making differential payment directly into the farmers’ account instead of physical procurement under Market Intervention scheme (MIS).
