In the Union Budget 2016–17, the Indian government proposed to bring fertiliser subsidy under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system. DBT in fertiliser (DBT-F) is a modified subsidy payment system, under which the government remits the subsidy to fertiliser companies only after fertiliser retailers have sold fertiliser to farmers through successful Aadhaar-based authentication. Under the DBT-F system, farmers may purchase any quantity of subsidised fertiliser regardless of the land size they possess or cultivate. The government launched the pilots in 14 districts. The 14 districts are – Una (Himachal Pradesh), Kishanganj (Bihar), Hoshangabad (Madhya Pradesh), Karnal and Kurukshetra (Haryana), Thrissur (Kerala), Nasik and Raigarh (Maharashtra), Tumkur (Karnataka), Rangareddy (Telangana), Krishna and West Godavari (Andhra Pradesh, Narmada (Gujarat), and Pali (Rajasthan).
MicroSave conducted quantitative research with 427 retailers and 5,659 farmers, and conducted qualitative in-depth interviews with 138 retailers and 185 farmers in 14 pilot districts across 11 states.
Click here for farmers'
data and retailers'
data.