5 things the Cabinet cleared for the farm and job sectors

NEW DELHI: In a major push for the farm and job sectors, the Cabinet cleared the Krishi Sinchayi Yojana and a National Policy For Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. Through the Rs 50,000 crore Krishi Sinchai Yojana, the Centre over the next five years will focus on improving irrigation in non rain-fed areas, finance minister Arun Jaitley said.

Here are the five things the Cabinet did for the two sectors:

1) Skill development: The Cabinet gave its approval for India’s first integrated National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015. The Policy acknowledges the need for an effective roadmap for promotion of entrepreneurship as the key to a successful skills strategy. The government's aim is to train 40 crore people by 2020 through the new policy. Apart from this, the Centre will also set up the first national university for skill development in Bihar.

2) Approved the Pradhanmantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna, which will ensure better use of water resources for farmers in regions facing poor rainfall. Every state will make a district irrigation plan for this. It will have an outlay of Rs 50,000 crore over a period of five years (2015-16 to 2019-20). The allocation for the current financial year is Rs 5,300 crore. The key aim of the scheme is to achieve convergence of investments in irrigation at the field level, expand cultivable area under assured irrigation, improve on-farm water use efficiency to reduce wastage of water, enhance the adoption of precision-irrigation and other water saving technologies (more crop per drop), enhance recharge of aquifers and introduce sustainable water conservation practices by exploring the feasibility of reusing treated municipal based water for peri-urban agriculture and attract greater private investment in precision irrigation system.

3) Common electronic marketplace: Approval to central sector scheme for Promotion of National Agricultural Market through Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund (ATIF). The Department of Agriculture & Cooperation will set it up through the Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium by creation of a common electronic platform deployable in selected regulated markets across the country. An amount of Rs 200 crore has been earmarked for the scheme. The target is to cover 585 selected regulated markets across the country, which will be integrated with the common e-platform to provide farmers and traders with access to opportunities for purchase/ sale of agri-commodities at optimal prices in a transparent manner.

4) Single licence: For integration with the e-platform the states/UTs will need to undertake prior reforms in respect of (i) a single license to be valid across the state, (ii) single point levy of market fee and (iii) provision for electronic auction as a mode for price discovery. Only those States/UTs that have completed these three per-requisites will be eligible for assistance under the scheme.

5) Decentralized water planning and execution: States told to draw up a District Irrigation Plan (DIP) and a State Irrigation Plan (SIP). DIP will have holistic developmental perspective of the district outlining medium to long-term developmental plans integrating three components namely, water sources, distribution network and water use application of the district to be prepared at two levels - the block and the district. All structures created under the schemes will be geotagged and supervised and monitored at the national level by an Inter-Ministerial National Steering Committee (NSC) under the PM.