Govt may implement NITI Aayog's area-based package for farmer relief: report

Ahead of the interim budget, the NITI Aayog may come up with a proposal to give a concession to distressed farmers, which will be less burdensome on the exchequer and 'market-distortionary,' the Business Standard reported, citing officials.

Under the area based income compensation (ABIC), the farmers should be paid the difference between the actual price they get and the state-mandated minimum support price (MSP), the report said, adding that the compensation will be determined on a per acre basis by using district-level estimates of marketable surplus and prices in the harvest season.

The payments made under this proposal will be different for each district and could be implemented easily as 3,000 mandis across the country report the price data in the government-based agmarket.nic.in portal, the report said, adding that the scheme will also be useful in paying for the earlier losses as the price data for the previous month is available too.

“This method of payment will take care of productivity variations as well as price variations across the mandis and will be the least market-distortionary,” a senior NITI Aayog official was quoted as saying in the report.