Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana
Why in News?
On 1 September 2026, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan held a high-level review of the Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana (PM-DDKY) at Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi, to accelerate implementation in the 100 identified low-productivity districts.
Model & Nodal Authority
- Targeted Approach: Modelled exactly after NITI Aayog's Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP), but is the first-ever scheme focusing exclusively on agriculture and allied activities.
- Nodal Ministry: Managed primarily by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in close guidance with NITI Aayog.
- Target Area: Implemented across 100 agriculturally underdeveloped districts across India, ensuring at least one district is selected from every State and Union Territory.
Budget & Financial Outlay
- Total Outlay: A substantial budget of ₹1.44 lakh crore spread over a period of 6 years (from FY 2025-26 to FY 2030-31).
- Annual Allocation: Disburses ₹24,000 crore per year.
- Funding Mechanism: Uses an innovative budget convergence mechanism; it has no separate standalone budget but instead fuses allocations from 36 existing schemes across 11 central departments (such as PM-KISAN, PMFBY, and PMKSY).
- Fund Breakdown: Allocated strategically with 40% for subsidies, 30% for infrastructure, 20% for loans, and 10% for training and market linkage.
Primary Objectives
- Productivity: Boosting crop yield in areas lagging significantly below national averages.
- Diversification: Encouraging crop rotation, sustainable agricultural habits, and organic farming.
- Infrastructure Expansion: Constructing robust post-harvest storage facilities at village Panchayat and Block levels to minimize agricultural wastage.
- Financial Inclusion: Expanding immediate short-term and long-term credit availability to smallholders.
District Selection Criteria
Districts are chosen based on an agronomic mapping of three strict performance bottlenecks:
Districts are chosen based on an agronomic mapping of three strict performance bottlenecks:
- Low Yields: Low agricultural productivity per unit area.
- Low Cropping Intensity: Regions where fewer than 1.5 crop cycles are cultivated on the same land annually.
- Credit Deprivation: Below-average formal credit and financial institutional support for local farmers.
- Target Audience: Reaches over 1.7 crore farmers directly.
- Smallholder Focus: Primarily aids small and marginal farmers owning under 2 hectares of land, who make up roughly 86% of India's agricultural workforce.
Governance & Technical Architecture
- Three-Tier Monitoring: Managed seamlessly through dedicated committees at the District, State, and National levels.
- Local Planning: District Collectors head the Dhan Dhaanya Samiti to draft localized District Agriculture and Allied Activities Plans (DAAP).
- Knowledge Partners: Backed technically by institutions like the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and NABARD.
- Strict Evaluation: Monitored continuously via 121 specific performance indicators (74 output and 47 outcome metrics) updated monthly on a transparent digital dashboard.
