DBT in Fertilizer: 4th Round of Concurrent Evaluation – A National Study

• by Anurodh Giri, Mitul Thapliyal, Ritesh Rautela and Vikram Sharma
• Mar 15, 2019
• 1 min
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MSC has been engaged in a nationally representative study on DBT in fertilizer in India, based on a request from NITI Aayog. It identified issues and challenges around the implementation of DBT at the national level.

DBT in fertilizer is a modified subsidy payment system under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme. Under DBT, fertilizer companies are paid subsidy only after retailers have sold fertilizer to farmers or buyers through successful Aadhaar authentication via Point of Sale (PoS) machines. Based on a request from NITI Aayog, MSC has been conducting a nationally representative study on DBT in fertilizer.

The objectives of the current round of the study were to identify issues and challenges pertaining to the implementation of DBT at the national level, provide the government with evidence of successes and challenges that could lead to policy-level decision making, and provide actionable solutions to improve implementation.

The current engagement was the fourth round of the study—the first one was in September, 2016 in two districts in Andhra Pradesh, where the pilot project was launched. The second was in January, 2017 in six districts across five states, where the pilot project was expanded. The third round was between July and September, 2017 in 14 pilot districts in across 11 states.