PRADHAN MANTRI ANNADATA AAY SANRAKSHAN ABHIYAN (PM-AASHA)

Why In News?

The Union Government stepped up financial and institutional support under the PM-AASHA umbrella scheme to ensure that Minimum Support Price (MSP) benefits reach small and marginal farmers across India.

About PM-AASHA

Umbrella Scheme for Price Assurance: Launched in 2018, the Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA) is a central sector umbrella scheme that guarantees remunerative prices for farmers producing pulses, oilseeds, and copra while stabilizing consumer food prices.

Multi-Year Financial Commitment: The Union Cabinet approved the continuation of integrated PM-AASHA across the 15th Finance Commission Cycle with an overall financial outlay of ₹35,000 crore.

Central Nodal Agencies: Physical procurement operations are executed through NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India), NCCF (National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India), Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), and Food Corporation of India (FCI).

Core Pillars of PM-AASHA

Price Support Scheme (PSS): Central nodal agencies physically buy notified pulses, oilseeds, and copra directly from pre-registered farmers at the Minimum Support Price (MSP) whenever market rates fall below MSP. The government guarantees 100% procurement for key pulses like Tur (Arhar), Urad, and Masur.

Price Deficiency Payment Scheme (PDPS): Direct cash transfer model inspired by Madhya Pradesh's Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana. Pre-registered oilseed farmers receive direct bank transfers (DBT) covering the difference between the MSP and the mandi modal market price (up to a ceiling of 15% of MSP), requiring zero physical crop handling by the government.

Pilot of Private Procurement & Stockist Scheme (PPPS): Selected private companies procure oilseeds at MSP in designated APMC mandis when market prices dip. The government reimburses private stockists with a service charge of up to 15% of the MSP.

Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) & Price Stabilization Fund (PSF): Integrated under PM-AASHA to purchase perishable horticulture crops (such as Tomato, Onion, and Potato - TOP) and distribute subsidized food under "Bharat Brand" (Bharat Dal, Bharat Atta, Bharat Rice) .

Significance of PM-AASHA

Promoting Crop Diversification: Encourages farmers to switch from water-guzzling crops (paddy and sugarcane) to climate-resilient pulses and oilseeds, saving groundwater tables and restoring nitrogen in soils.

Direct Income Support for Small and Marginal Farmers: Protects smallholders—who operate 86% of India's agricultural landholdings—against volatile global commodity cycles.

Advancing National Self-Reliance (Aatmanirbharta): Directly accelerates the National Mission on Edible Oils - Oilseeds (NMEO-Oilseeds) and National Pulses Self-Sufficiency Mission targeting 350 lakh tonnes of pulses by 2030.

Dual Consumer and Producer Price Cushion: Procures buffer stocks during harvest peaks and releases them during lean seasons to control urban food inflation.

Implementation Challenges

Complicated Farmer Pre-Registration Barriers: Small and illiterate farmers struggle with mandatory portal registrations, land record portal verifications, and strict enrollment cut-off dates.

Trader Cartelization in Mandis Under PDPS: Private traders in APMC yards collude to artificially depress mandi auction prices, exploiting the government’s deficiency payment window.

Rigid Fair Average Quality (FAQ) Rejections: High moisture content or minor discolouration leads to large-scale crop rejections by procurement officers, forcing farmers back to open markets.

Severe Shortage of Rural Procurement Centers: Remote dryland regions lack sufficient NAFED/NCCF collection centers, forcing farmers to bear high transportation costs.

Low Private Sector Participation in PPPS Pilots: Private commercial stockists hesitate to participate due to complex government bidding rules, price volatility risks, and delayed service fee disbursements.

Working Capital and Storage Deficits in State Agencies: State marketing federations face delayed central reimbursements and a critical shortage of modern climate-controlled warehouses.

Way Forward

Empower Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) as Direct Procurement Hubs: Authorize local FPOs to run direct village-level collection centers and manage primary quality checks.

Integrate e-NAM with e-Samridhi Portals: Link national digital mandis (e-NAM) with real-time biometric DBT payment gateways to ensure seamless, instantaneous deficiency transfers.

Deploy AI-Based Digital Assaying at Mandis: Install automated grain-testing machines and spectroscopic analyzers to remove human subjectivity and bias from Fair Average Quality (FAQ) testing.

Expand Decentralized Rural Storage via Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF): Build micro-warehouses and solar cold rooms at the Gram Panchayat and PACS (Primary Agricultural Credit Societies) level.

Calibrate Dynamic Import Tariffs: Adjust basic customs duties on imported palm and soybean oils dynamically to ensure domestic oilseed mandi prices stay consistently above MSP benchmarks.

Simplify PPPS Viability Gap Funding: Offer transparent, bank-backed performance guarantees and tax incentives to attract private food processing companies into procurement.

Adopt Universal Decentralized Price Deficiency Transfers: Shift gradually from physical grain procurement to universal electronic deficiency payments (DBT) to eliminate government storage losses.

Conclusion

PM-AASHA bridges the vital gap between MSP announcements and real farm-gate realizations, safeguarding farmer livelihoods and driving India's journey toward self-reliance in pulses and edible oils.

Source: NEWSONAIR