Keen on assessing the impact of direct benefit transfer in fertilisers before expanding the scheme, the Centre is getting a fresh evaluation done to assess its impact on the peak season.
“A fresh third party evaluation of the scheme will be undertaken now to see how well the scheme is working when farmers are actually queuing up to get fertiliser,” said a person familiar with the development.
Based on the findings of the study, the government is likely to take a call on further expansion of the scheme, which is currently functioning in 14 districts.
The evaluation will also assess the behavioural changes brought about through the scheme in farmers and retailers, the use of soil health cards, functioning of the point of sale (PoS) machines and transaction time,” said the person, noting that the experiment of DBT in fertiliser has been very different compared to the cash transfer schemes for food and cooking gas.
Under the Aadhaar-enabled Fertiliser Distribution Service (AeFDS), the subsidy is released to the fertiliser companies, rather than the beneficiaries, after the sale is made by the retailers to the beneficiaries after biometric authentication.
A pilot project was undertaken by the government earlier this year in 19 districts and it had planned to expand it across the country from June 1.
But, the plan was later shelved as the government adopted a cautious stance to ensure that farmers did not get impacted.
“The scheme needed more detailed study as the need for fertiliser crops up suddenly as soon as it rains. Farmers got to purchase it the very next day and it will not be possible to make them wait for extended periods of time,” noted an official.
A recent study on DBT in fertiliser that was submitted to the NITI Aayog had found encouraging results showing more transparency and lesser time for transactions than the pilot project. However, it was undertaken in the off-season before sowing had started.
Official data show that in these 14 districts ranging from Rangareddy (Telangana) to Karnal (Haryana), 9,334 retailers are on board and have sold 1.46 lakh mt of fertiliser in this month.