Agriculture Announcements: Mother of All Schemes or Complete Takeover from the States? 

Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out agricultural schemes worth Rs 35,000 crores. While one of them appeared like a routine policy with a mission for aatmanirbharta or self-sufficiency in pulses, it is the second one – the Pradhan Mantri Dhan Dhaanya Krishi Yojana (PMDDKY) – that piqued the curiosity of the states, farmers and agriculture experts alike. Is it really the mother of all agri-schemes? 

PMDDKY merges 36 existing schemes across 11 ministries – including the PM-Kisan, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) and the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) – into a centrally-governed framework. 

Modelled on NITI Aayog’s successful aspirational districts programme, it targets regions with below-average crop yields (such as wheat under 3.5 tonnes/hectare), cropping intensity below 155%, and low credit access.

With a budgetary allocation of Rs 24,000 crore per year for six years (2025-26 to 2030-31), the scheme carries a total outlay of Rs 1.44 lakh crore and seeks to benefit 1.7 crore farmers – primarily small and marginal landholders with less than 2 hectares, who make up 86% of the agricultural community, as per Economic Survey 2024-25.

The scheme hopes to offer integrated support – covering irrigation, storage, credit, training and modern technology – to raise farm incomes, strengthen food security and promote the idea of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’. Implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, the programme will be overseen by a national steering committee, state-level nodal bodies and district dhan dhaanya samitis headed by district collectors. 

Progress will be tracked through a digital dashboard monitoring 117 key performance indicators, including yield improvements, loan distribution and storage usage.

The Union government aims to boost small and marginal farmers’ productivity and profitability through a comprehensive support system. The scheme lowers input costs via subsidies on hybrid seeds, bio-fertilisers and basic tools, while providing easy access to short-term credit of Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh through kisan credit cards at 4-7% interest. To improve water access and enable multiple cropping cycles, it offers subsidised drip irrigation systems tailored for small landholdings. 

Farmers will also benefit from free or low-cost storage at village-level warehouses and cold chains to curb post-harvest losses. Capacity-building is strengthened through free training by krishi vigyan kendras on organic practices, crop rotation and mechanisation, helping raise yields by 20-30%. Additionally, digital market platforms like e-NAM ensure better price realisation by eliminating middlemen, and the scheme promotes crop diversification into higher-value options such as pulses and vegetables instead of low-return staples.

The scheme also promises corporate India a piece of the pie through multiple interventions, including public-private partnerships with companies such as “ITC, Mahindra and Godrej” to provide seeds, machinery and digital market platforms while sharing infrastructure costs. 

Farmers have been promised better access to corporate developed warehouses and cold storage facilities to safely store bulk produce like grains, pulses and fruits. To support larger initiatives such as greenhouses, processing units and mechanised farms, the programme will facilitate long-term loans ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. 

It will also promote the use of advanced technologies – including drones, IoT sensors and precision farming tools – to enhance efficiency and cut labour expenses. In addition, the scheme aims to open export avenues by enabling farmers to sell high-value produce like organic spices and fruits in domestic and global markets, with corporate help, significantly increasing profitability.

While on paper, everything sounds blessed, once we ask the question of how, we run into deeper challenges. 

Challenges behind the scheme

Considering this is big in agri-administration, the first challenge is implementation. How will the government successfully reach the last villager as it combines 36 mega schemes across 11 ministries? The government has itself highlighted this and given a potential solution: a central nodal agency. However, most of the co-ordination, strategy, monitoring, research and funding is all coming directly from the Union government. 

Most districts and farmers will be linked to NITI Aayog or a central agricultural university or corporations the Union government partners with. The press release for the scheme calls for a “three tier system” comprising district-level committees, state-level steering groups and national-level oversight bodies. 

Overall, there will be a district-level and a state-level team to take responsibility “of ensuring effective convergence of schemes in districts”. 

Meanwhile, “two teams will be formed at the central level: one under Union ministers, and another under secretaries and department officers. Each level will ensure strategic planning, execution, and issue resolution.”

The final straw will be to “bolster on-ground oversight”, for which “Central Nodal Officers will be appointed for each district to conduct regular field visits, monitor progress, and coordinate with local teams.” 

Currently, agriculture in India is a state subject – it is under the purview of the states’ administration. The Union government only provides funds and schemes to be implemented by the states. But this new PMDDKY silently aims to overturn constitutional rights overnight. States’ power in agriculture will become very limited and all the schemes, fundings, auditing and strategy will come from the Union government or its agencies. 

This potentially could make the state agriculture agencies lose considerable financial and decision making power. And maybe this will be the final take over of agriculture from the state government of agriculture. 

The second big challenge is public trust. Reading the schematics of the PMDDKY, one would get a taste of the 3 farm laws on the palate. The inclusions of corporations and corporate-led agrarian policy is what the farmers rose up against in 2020. 

However, this scheme could also be a back door entry for corporate companies taking on the driver’s seat of Indian agriculture. Instead of bolstering the public agrarian institutions like IARI, ICAR and other state agricultural institutions or the national seed corporation, the government wants to rely on private corporations “like Mahindra, ITC, Godrej” for the same. 

This is outright undermining of state institutions and will lead to further erosion of public agrarian bodies. 

The next big challenge around the scheme is awareness. How slow or fast can they reach the last farmers and the most underprivileged farmers in aspirational districts? 

The government currently covers 100 districts under the scheme – which some would argue keeps a very limited scope for the scheme, perhaps intentionally. 

We will have to wait and watch if the government’s mega agri-scheme is able to deliver on its promises and is actually able to create additional storage, irrigation and distribution centres across the districts. We will also have to see if the government manages to attract the necessary corporate and public investments to get this scheme to work. 

The future of states’ role in agriculture is at stake here. The government must give a clearer road map on the role of corporations, ecology and farmers’ benefit in this scheme. 

While PMDDKY is definitely a big leap in agriculture, one hopes it lands on solid ground that is good for the rural economy, farmers and ecology.

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