It has decided not to levy the 2 per cent tax deducted at source (TDS) on cash payments above Rs 1 crore made through Agricultural Produce Market Committees.

This should augur well for the rabi crops as delayed withdrawal will leave enough moisture in the soil for early sowing.

Farmers should be encouraged into crops needing less of water, while ensuring a market for what they sow, said ICAR's head.

The subsidy will be credited to bank accounts of farmers against cane price dues and are compliant with WTO norms. This will benefit millions of farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The slowdown in sowing is mainly because of the delayed onset of the southwest monsoon and its slow progress in June.

However, the areas under paddy - the biggest cereal grown during the kharif season - continue to be less than last year, mainly due to delayed onset of rains and also on account of shift towards the more lucrative maize.

Officials said good rain in August - though it might not improve acreages much for most crops except urad, moong, and paddy - would help in improving yields in the crops already planted.

Low rain coupled with the fact that maize prices in the open market have surged from around Rs 15-16 a kg to almost Rs 25 this year have forced farmers to turn to this crop.

Till July 26, kharif crops have been sown in around 68.87 million hectares, which is 6.43 per cent lower than the area covered during the same period last year.

The high-level panel also asked the government to work towards re-orienting subsidies in a targeted manner from the crop sector to the non-crop sector and redesign the electronic National Agriculture Market.

The groups, including those associated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's parent organisation the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, have also threatened a big nationwide agitation if growth of illegal GM crops isn't checked.

The committee has been tasked to come up with policy measures to boost agriculture exports, raise growth in food processing, attract investments in modern market infrastructure, value chains and logistics.

Till June 30, the southwest monsoon was 33 per cent lower than normal, which is among the worst in the last five years, with 28 of the 36 meteorological divisions recording deficient rain.

It would involve constructing over 125,000 kilometres of roads and would form part of the third phase of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

By June 14, the monsoon should have reached central India. But this year it hasn't even covered Karnataka properly or entered the Northeast.

"The season averaged maximum temperatures in Himachal Pradesh, West Rajasthan, Konkan, Goa, Coastal Karnataka, Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh are likely to be higher than normal by 0.5-1.0 degree Celsius," the Met department has said in its forecast.

For potato farmers in the north and wheat growers in the eastern parts -- particularly in Jharkhand, Bihar, and Odisha -- the recent rains could in fact be beneficial.

A normal monsoon will augur well for the country's agriculture sector and boost crop yields. However, good rains - and surplus crops - could also depress prices, hurting farm income, unless adequate steps are taken.

Families with tax-paying members, government employees, professionals, among those who have been exempted from the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme.

Allegations abound that traders milked the scheme to artificially keep prices down, while a significant amount of growers didn't even register owing to multiple difficulties in registration and were deprived of the payout.