New Delhi: On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the government’s first decision of the New Year is dedicated to farmers. The Union Cabinet, led by him, increased funding for the crop insurance scheme and raised the subsidy for a key fertilizer.

PM Modi said on X, “(Govt’s) first decision of the New Near is dedicated to crores of farmer brothers and sisters of our country. We have approved increasing the allocation for crop insurance scheme. This will provide more security to farmers’ crops and will also mitigate their concerns about any damage.” 

“The Cabinet’s decision on extending the one-time special package on Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) will help farmers by ensuring the fertiliser at affordable prices”, he added.

The Cabinet approved continuation of the ‘Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana’ and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme till 2025-26 with an overall outlay of Rs 69,515.71 crore for 2021-22 to 2025-26. The decision will help in risk coverage of crops from non-preventable natural calamities for farmers across the country till 2025-26, a statement said.

It also approved the proposal of the Department of Fertilizers for extension of One-time Special Package on DAP beyond the NBS subsidy at Rs 3,500 per MT for the period starting from Wednesday till further orders to ensure sustainable availability of DAP at affordable prices to the farmers.

The tentative budgetary requirement for this would be approximately up to Rs 3,850 crore, the statement said.

(with agency inputs)