How a new platform will instantly disburse subsidies to farmers

The union government has developed a new digital platform to disburse subsidies to horticulture farmers under the Cluster Development Programme (CDP), an initiative by the Centre to promote horticulture crops. The platform is known as CDP-SURAKSHA.

In recent years, the total production of horticulture crops has spiked in India. While in 2010-11, their production stood at 240.53 million tonnes, production increased to 334.60 million tonnes in 2020-21.

The horticulture sector makes a substantial contribution to the Indian economy as it contributes nearly one-third to the agriculture gross value added (GVA) — the measure of the value of goods and services produced by an industry, sector, manufacturer, area or region.

What is the CDP-SURAKSHA?

The acronym SURAKSHA stands for “System for Unified Resource Allocation, Knowledge, and Secure Horticulture Assistance .” the cd p-s ur a ks ha will allow an instant disbursal of subsidies to farmers by u ti li sing thee-r u pi voucher from the national Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Thee ru pi voucher isa cash less and no-contact electronic payment mechanism, which can be shared with the beneficiaries for a specific purpose or activity by organisations or government via SMS or QR code, according to NPCI.

The platform will have features such as database integration with the Pm-kisan scheme, cloud-based server space from National Informatics Centre (NIC), content management system, geotagging, etc.

How will the CDP-SURAKSHA work?

The platform will allow access to farmers, vendors, implementing agencies (IA), cluster development agencies (CDAS), and officials of the National Horticulture Board (NHB).

A farmer can log on to the platform using her mobile number and place an order for planting materials such as seeds, seedlings, and plants, based on her requirement.

Once the demand has been raised by the farmer, the system will ask her to contribute her share of the cost of the planting material. The subsidy amount paid by the government will appear on the screen automatically.

After the farmer pays her contribution, an e-r up iv ouch er will be generated. this voucher will then be received by a vendor, who will provide the planting material to the farmer.

After the planting material gets delivered to the farmer, she will have to verify the delivery through geo-tagged photos and videos of her field. Once the verification is done, the IA will release the money to the vendor, who will have to upload an invoice of the payment on the portal.

The IA will collect all the documents and share them with the CDA, after which the latter will release the subsidy amount to the IA.

However, the farmer, who raised the demand for the plant material using the platform, can avail of the subsidy amount at the first stage of the platform.

How is the new system different from the old one?

In the old system, a farmer had to give the full amount to buy planting materials. She would then have to approach the officials concerned for the release of the subsidy amount.

The new platform, however, will provide the subsidy amount to a farmer upfront, at the time of purchasing planting materials. Vendors will receive their payment only after the farmer verifies the delivery of her orders.

How many farmers and banks have come on board?

While the platform is yet to be unveiled at the national level, around 8,400 farmers’ details have been uploaded on the platform so far. These include 8,000 farmers of Sahyadri Farms Private Ltd, which is implementing the grape cluster in Nashik, Maharashtra. The rest of the 400 farmers are from the Meghalaya Basin Management Agency (MBMA), which is implementing the turmeric cluster in Meghalaya.

Four banks — HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda — have also been onboarded on the platform. These banks will generate E-RUPI vouchers for fund disbursement.

What is the CDP?

The CDP is a component of the central sector scheme of NHB. It is aimed at leveraging “the geographical specialisation of horticulture clusters and promoting integrated and market-led development of pre-production, production, post-harvest, logistics, branding, and marketing activities”.

So far, 55 horticulture clusters have been identified, out of which 12 have been selected for the pilot. These clusters are in various stages of development.

According to the Union government, about 9 lakh hectares of area will be covered through all 55 clusters, covering 10 lakh farmers. It is estimated that the initiative will attract private investment of Rs 8,250 crore, in addition to the government’s assistance, which is fixed according to the size of the cluster — up to Rs 25 crore for mini cluster (size up to 5,000 hectares), up to Rs 50 crore for medium clusters (5,000 to 15,000 hectares), and up to Rs 100 crore for mega clusters (more than 15,000 hectares).