With increasing farm distress in the wake of falling farm prices in 2017, the State Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP) came out with an innovative scheme called Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana (BBY), a price deficiency payment (PDP) scheme, to support farmers.

Farmers in India are exposed to large agriculture risks due to vagaries of nature. One of the most effective mechanisms to mitigate agricultural risks is to have a robust insurance system.

The paper presents a case for a phased rolling out of direct benefits transfer (DBT) for Food in India.