Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana (PMDDKY) was announced in the Union Budget 2025 to make farming easier, modern, and more profitable. Under this scheme, farmers get direct financial help, new farming tools, crop insurance, and better market access.
PMDDKY is designed on the lines of the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) that was launched in January 2018 in the country’s 112 most underdeveloped districts, with the aim of transforming them quickly and effectively.
PMDDKY consolidates 36 existing agricultural schemes across 11 ministries, including PM-KISAN (cash transfers), PMFBY (crop insurance), PMKSY (irrigation), and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), into a unified program to streamline efforts and maximize impact.
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Outlay for Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana (PMDDKY)
With an annual budget of ₹24,000 crore for six years (2025-26 to 2030-31), totaling ₹1.44 lakh crore, the scheme aims to support 1.7 crore farmers, particularly small and marginal farmers owning less than 2 hectares of land, who constitute 86% of India’s farming population.
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Focus of Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana (PMDDKY)
PMDDKY focuses on regions with low crop yields (e.g., wheat yields below 3.5 tonnes/hectare compared to the national average), moderate cropping intensity (below 155%, meaning fewer than 1.55 crop cycles per year), and limited access to credit.
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Goals of Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana (PMDDKY)
PMDDKY has five objectives:
(i) Enhancing agricultural productivity;
(ii) Adopting crop diversification and sustainable agriculture practices;
(iii) Augmenting post-harvest storage at the panchayat and block level;
(iv) Improving irrigation facilities;
(v) Facilitating availability of long-term and short-term credit.
Overall Objective of Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana (PMDDKY)
By providing irrigation, storage, loans, training, and modern technology support , PMDDKY seeks to boost farmer incomes, ensure food security, and advance Atmanirbhar Bharat that is self-reliant India.
Operating Agencies for Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana (PMDDKY)
The scheme operates under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, with oversight from a National Steering Committee, state-level nodal committees, and District Dhan Dhaanya Samitis led by District Collectors. These bodies ensure tailored implementation based on local needs, monitored through a digital dashboard tracking 117 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) like crop yields, loan disbursals, and storage usage.
How the Districts under Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana (PMDDKY) will be selected?
The 100 districts will be selected on the basis of three parameters – low productivity, moderate crop intensity and below-average credit parameters.
The number of districts in each state/ Union Territory will be based on the share of net cropped area and operational holdings. However, a minimum of one district will be selected from each state.
Reasons Behind Launch of Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana (PMDDKY)
In spite of the fact that Indian agriculture employs 46% of the workforce (Economic Survey 2024-25), it faces significant challenges that hinder its potential to support livelihoods and national food security:
• Low Crop Productivity: Many districts, particularly in Uttar Pradesh (Purvanchal, Bundelkhand), Bihar (Seemanchal), and Madhya Pradesh (tribal areas), produce lower yields due to degraded soil, outdated farming methods, or insufficient irrigation. For instance, rice yields in Seemanchal average 1.8 tonnes/hectare compared to the national 2.7 tonnes.
• Dependence on Monsoons: Over 52% of India’s farmland relies on unpredictable monsoons, leading to crop failures during droughts or unseasonal rains.
• Small Landholdings: Approximately 86% of farmers own less than 2 hectares, earning an average of ₹10,218 per month (NSSO 2019), which is often insufficient to meet family needs, leading to debt and distress.
• Lack of Modern Resources: Many farmers cannot afford high-quality seeds, bio-fertilizers, or mechanized equipment like tractors or harvesters, limiting productivity and efficiency.
• Post-Harvest Losses: Up to 20% of crops, such as tomatoes and mangoes, spoil due to inadequate storage facilities, resulting in an estimated ₹50,000 crore annual loss (ICAR 2023).
• Low Farmer Income: Market inefficiencies and reliance on middlemen reduce profits, trapping farmers in cycles of poverty and debt.
Implementation of Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana (PMDDKY)
The programme will cover 100 districts with low productivity, moderate crop intensity and below-average credit parameters.
A master plan for the implementation of PMDDKY, which will include agriculture and allied activities, will be drawn up for every district. This District Agriculture and Allied Activities Plan will be prepared by the District Dhan Dhaanya Samiti headed by the Collector, and will have progressive farmers as members.
The District Plans will be aligned to the national goals of crop diversification, conservation of water and soil health, self-sufficiency in agriculture and allied sectors as well as expansion of natural and organic farming. The plans will be based on extensive consultations and understanding cropping patterns and allied activities as per agro-climatic conditions. Committees will be set up at the district, state, and national levels for their effective implementation.
Central Nodal Officers (CNOs) will be appointed for field visits, review and monitoring. Every district will have central and state agriculture universities as technical knowledge partners.
PMDDKY districts will be ranked based on their performance. Local partnerships with the private sector will also be promoted under the scheme.
Critical Appraisal of Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana (PMDDKY)
The hope is that PMDDKY will result in higher productivity, value addition in agriculture and allied sectors, local livelihood creation, leading to increased domestic production and self-reliance.
The aggregation of all schemes under one umbrella suggests that the Government wants uniformity in running the welfare, financial and technical schemes in the agriculture sector. It is keen to add States’ measures too in the new scheme. It remains to be seen how effective such uniformity will be on the ground as further decrease in public investment in agriculture could be disastrous.
The convergence of schemes must be viewed in the background of decreasing public spending on agriculture. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture, in the report on Demands for Grants, had observed a continuous decline, from 3.53% in 2021-22 to 3.14% (2022-23), 2.57% (2023-24), 2.54% (2024-25) and 2.51% (2025-26), of the allocations for agriculture as a percentage of total Central Plan outlay.
Private-public partnerships should be for the larger good of self-reliance, particularly in the production of foodgrains, edible oil and pulses.
For the PMDDKY, the Centre will monitor 117 key indicators of progress on a monthly basis. But to make it more participatory, States, local self governments, primary agriculture cooperative societies, agriculture universities and organisations of farmers and traders must be involved in this process.
