Govt. Merges PSS and PSF Under PM AASHA for Better Farmer and Consumer Support

The Central Government has approved the extension of the Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyaan (PM-ASHA) until 2025-26, with a total budget of Rs 35,000 crore. This decision was made during a Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. The government aims to continue PM-ASHA schemes to ensure fair prices for farmers and control price fluctuations of essential goods for consumers. The funds will be spent until 2025-26, as part of the 15th Finance Commission.

Integration of price support scheme and price stabilization fund

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. 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. PM-AASHA will now have the components of the Price Support Scheme (PSS) , Price Stabilization Fund (PSF) , Price Deficit Payment Scheme (POPS) and Market Intervention Scheme (MIS).

Procurement ceiling and renewed guarantee for MSP crops

The procurement of notified pulses, oilseeds & copra at MSP under the Price Support Scheme will be on 25 percent of the national Production of these notified crops from 2024-25 season onwards which would enable States to procure more of these crops at MSP from farmers to ensure remunerative prices and preventing distress sale. However, this ceiling will not be applicable in case of Tur, Urad & Masur for the 2024-25 season as there will be a 100 percent 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. This will help in more procurement of pulses, oilseeds & copra by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) from farmers at MSP including Pre-registered farmers on the eSamridhi portal of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and the eSamyukti portal of National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India (NCCF) whenever prices fall below MSP in the market. This would also motivate the farmers to cultivate more of these crops in the country and contribute to achieving self-sufficiency in these crops leading to a reduction in dependence on imports to meet domestic requirements.

To encourage the states to come forward for implementation of the Price Deficit Payment Scheme (PDPS) as an option for Notified oilseeds, the coverage has been enhanced from the existing 25 percent of state production of oilseeds to 40 percent and also enhanced the implementation period from 3 months to 4 months for the benefits of farmers. The compensation of the difference between MSP and Sale/Modal price to be borne by the Central Government is limited to 15 percent of MSP.

The extension of the implementation of the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) with changes will provide remunerative prices to farmers growing perishable horticulture crops. The Government has increased the coverage from 20 percent to 25 percent of production and has added a new option of making differential payments directly into the farmers' account instead of physical procurement under MIS. Further, in the case of TOP (Tomato, Onion & Potato) crops, to bridge the price gap in TOP 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 Central Nodal Agencies like NAFED & NCCF which will not only ensure remunerative prices to farmers but also soften the prices of TOP crops for consumers in the market.