Bhawantar Bhugtan Yojana

Yielding little results, does govt need to review PM-AASHA scheme?

MPS's effective and transparent delivery has been part of multiple committees and reports. Many recommendations have been implemented and others put in cold storage

Both were well-intentioned but inadvertently kept several farmers out and in any case had complicated implementation protocols on MSP

New Delhi, 4 November Is the Madhya Pradesh government's much-discussed Bhawantar Bhugtan Yojana (Price Deficiency Payment Scheme) showing signs of stabilising? Unlike in 2017, the open market wholesale rates this year for soybean and maize, two crops incorporated into the scheme, haven't so far seen a big decline from their current level, which is below the centrally-set Minimum Support Price (MSP). The BBY was begun last year, when there were allegations of traders cornering it for own benefit.In the state's major wholesale markets (mandis), where BBY has been on since October 20, the rate for soybean has been Rs 2,900-3,100 a quintal. This is almost 10 per cent less than the MSP of Rs 3,399 a qtl for the 2018-19 kharif season but there are no signs of a meltdown from these low levels.What one should note, though, is that unlike in 2017, the BBY of 2018 isn't a price deficit financing scheme in the strictest sense.Last year, the state reimbursed the difference between the modal ...