Govt announces scheme to hike farmers’ income

Mumbai: Amid demands for farm loan waiver in the state, the government has announced ‘Advanced Farming – Enriched Farmer’ scheme, with an aim to increase farmers’ income by cutting production cost and increasing the output. The scheme will be launched in the upcoming kharif season.

Under the initiative, the government has declared each tehsil in the state as a unit where planning will be done for agri-development. The major tasks that would be undertaken are: raising production of major crops (up to the level of its genetic yield potential), diversification of crops, introducing marketing techniques, uniting farmers through farm producers’ companies and making them financially stable.

The government has come up with a resolution in which it is said that each tehsil will be given target of production. The district agricultural department is asked to coordinate with farmers and their societies about the target of production. They will plan for the crop according to the soil, water conservation, loans being distributed in tehsils, etc.

According to the GR, the government has also decided to spend 60 per cent of the fund available for mechanisation of farming on tractors, power tillers, transplant, and machines for packaging. The government has also decided to deposit the grant in the account of farmers directly, which would be linked through AADHAR.

The government’s move follows protests taken out by opposition parties across the state over the farmer loan waiver demands. But chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has said that while his government wants to waive off the loan, a decision affecting the same will be taken only at “the right time” and not based on the Opposition’s demands.