Govt may provide DBT to onion farmers

The union government is planning to directly transfer payments to farmers for shallots purchased by its procurement agencies, an official said.

- Puja Das

The move for direct benefit transfer (DBT) is aimed at cutting out middlemen. The government currently provides a DBT of 6,000 per farmer annually under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana. However, there is no data on how farmers are paid for the produce procured from them.

This comes in the backdrop of tight global supplies and a dry spell induced by the El Niño weather phenomenon prompting the union government to restrict onion exports.

This will be done through a portal of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED), which is being leveraged by the department of consumer affairs to track onion procurement, storage and disposal.