Cabinet Greenlights Continuation of PM-AASHA for Better Prices To Empower Farmers

New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday approved the continuation of the PM-AASHA scheme, with an outlay of Rs 35,000 crore, to provide better prices to farmers and also control price volatility of essential commodities for consumers.

"The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi , 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," an official statement said.

The total financial outgo will be Rs 35,000 crore during the 15th Finance Commission Cycle up to 2025-26, it added.

The government has converged the Price Support Scheme (PSS) and Price Stabilization Fund (PSF) schemes in PM-AASHA to serve the farmers and consumers more efficiently.

"The Integrated scheme of PM-AASHA will bring in more effectiveness in the implementation which would not only help in providing remunerative prices to the farmers for their produce but also control the price volatility of essential commodities by ensuring their availability at affordable prices to consumers," the government said.

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).

What is PM-AASHA?

PM-AASHA is an umbrella scheme to ensure MSP (minimum support price) to farmers.

Under the PSS, the procurement of notified pulses, oilseeds and copra at MSP will be 25 per cent of national production from 2024-25 season onwards. This would enable states to procure more of these crops at MSP from farmers to prevent distress sale.

"However, this ceiling will not be applicable in case of tur, urad and masur for 2024-25 season as there will be a 100 per cent procurement of tur, urad and masur during in 2024-25 season as decided earlier," the government said.

The Centre has renewed and enhanced the existing government guarantee to Rs 45,000 crore for procurement of notified pulses, oilseeds and copra at MSP.

This will help in more procurement of pulses, oilseeds & copra whenever prices fall below MSP in the market.

The purchases will be undertaken by the Department of Agriculture from farmers at MSP including pre-registered farmers on eSamridhi portal of National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and eSamyukti portal of National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India (NCCF).

"This would also motivate the farmers to cultivate more of these crops in the country and contribute in achieving self-sufficiency in these crops leading to reduction in dependence on imports to meet domestic requirement," the government said.

The extension of the PSF scheme will help in protecting consumers from extreme volatility in prices of agri-horticultural commodities by maintaining strategic buffer stock of pulses and onion for calibrated release.

The scheme would help discourage hoarding and unscrupulous speculation.

Procurement of pulses at market price will be done by the Department of Consumer Affairs 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 per cent of state production of oilseeds to 40 per cent and also enhanced the implementation period from 3 months to 4 months for the benefits of farmers.

The compensation of difference between MSP and Sale/Modal price to be borne by Central Government is limited to 15 per cent of MSP.

The extension of implementation of the MIS with changes will provide remunerative prices to farmers growing perishable horticulture crops.

"The Government has increased the coverage from 20 per cent to 25 per cent of production and has added a new option of making differential payment directly into the farmers' account instead of physical procurement under MIS," the statement said.

To bridge the price gap in TOP (Tomato, Onion & Potato) crops between producing states and consuming states during peak harvesting time, the Government has decided to bear the transportation and storage expenses for the operations undertaken by nodal agencies like NAFED and NCCF. 

(With inputs from PTI)