PIB TrackerRegenerative farming arrives as six schemes, not one mission
A PIB backgrounder sets out the government's regenerative agriculture push — 18,786 natural farming clusters over 8.80 lakh hectares, about 109 lakh hectares under micro-irrigation and 25.89 crore Soil Health Cards.
What happened
- Natural farming clusters cover 8.80 lakh hectares with 18.19 lakh farmers enrolled.
- Per Drop More Crop has covered about 109 lakh hectares; ₹26,325 crore released.
- 25.89 crore Soil Health Cards have been generated since inception.
- The natural farming incentive is ₹4,000 per acre per year for two years.
- Agriculture and allied sectors grew 4.45 per cent a decade over FY16-FY25.
For Prelims
- Regenerative vs sustainable: sustainable farming maintains existing conditions; regenerative farming rebuilds soil health, biodiversity and ecosystem resilience.
- NMNF: the National Mission on Natural Farming, launched 2024 — ₹4,000 per acre per year for two years, 10,000 Bio-input Resource Centres, two Community Resource Persons per cluster.
- Natural farming inputs: Beejamrut, Jeevamrut, GhanJeevamrut, Neemastra and Dashparni, prepared on farm from native livestock.
- PKVY: Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, launched 2015 — ₹31,500 per hectare over three years, 16.90 lakh hectares covered as of 31 October 2025.
- PDMC: Per Drop More Crop, since 2015-16 — drip and sprinkler micro-irrigation with 55% assistance to small and marginal farmers and 45% to others.
- RAD: the Rainfed Area Development Programme, since 2014-15 — Integrated Farming System clusters of about 20 hectares, ₹30,000 per family plus ₹10,000 per cluster for training.
- Soil Health Card: launched 2015, plot-wise reports on 12 parameters, issued every two years; 70,002 Krishi Sakhis trained to disseminate advisories.
- Agroforestry: the erstwhile Sub-Mission on Agroforestry is now a component of PM-RKVY, with 100% assistance to government agencies and 50% back-ended credit-linked assistance to private beneficiaries.
For UPSC: The single best consolidated set of figures on India's soil and water-efficiency schemes. Use it for agriculture and irrigation, climate-resilient farming and the environmental costs of intensive cultivation.
What it is NOT: Hectares covered, cards generated and farmers enrolled are coverage figures, not evidence that soil organic carbon or biodiversity has actually improved on those hectares.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.4 · GS3.14 · Linkage L2
Anchor
This is the rare farm policy whose stated target is not the crop but the medium that grows it — the state has begun treating soil as an asset with a balance sheet.
Substantiation (data)
18,786 natural farming clusters over 8.80 lakh hectares with 18.19 lakh farmers, about 109 lakh hectares under Per Drop More Crop against ₹26,325 crore released, and 25.89 crore Soil Health Cards.
Exemplification
The Rainfed Area Development Programme's roughly 20-hectare cluster, at ₹30,000 per family, combines crops with livestock, fisheries and horticulture so that one failed season does not end the household's income.
Problematisation
Six schemes sit in different budget lines with different units of account — acres, hectares, families, cards — so national coverage cannot be added up, and the natural farming incentive runs for two years on one acre while soil recovery takes longer.
Way-forward
Use the Soil Health Card's 12-parameter testing as the outcome measure for cluster schemes, so that repeat tests on the same plots replace hectares enrolled as the reported number.
Position
Soil is the one agricultural input India cannot import; these schemes should be judged on carbon in the ground, not on names on a register.
Deploys into: Agriculture & irrigation + conservation (GS3.4, GS3.14) · soil health, natural farming, micro-irrigation and climate-resilient farming systems.
PIB Backgrounder · 2026-08-23 · PRID 2302428 · PIB source ↗