Mumbai: According to governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao, the state government’s farm loan waiver scheme has immensely benefitted farmers in the state, especially in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions.
Addressing a joint sitting of the state legislature on the opening day of the budget session Monday, the governor said that the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman Yojana implemented by the state government has been unprecedented in terms of coverage of beneficiaries.
“Rs 24,000 crore was sanctioned to 51 lakh farmers’ accounts, of which, Rs 18,036 crore has already been transferred to over 43 lakh farmers. The state government is working on a new piped distribution network for irrigation which will cover an area of 6.15 lakh hectare,” said Mr Rao.
The state government has paid Rs 3,121 crore to over five lakh farmers as minimum support price (MSP). As relief to onion producing farmers affected by the steep fall in market prices in 2018-19, the government has decided to grant a subsidy of Rs 200 per quintal to those who sold their crop through Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) from November 2018 to January 31, 2019, he added.
To ensure better farm produce prices, the state government procured 40.10 lakh quintals of pulses, 2.62 lakh quintals of soya bean, and 19.47 lakh quintals of chana during the Kharif season of 2017-18. Under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Emplo-yment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the state government has provided over six crore man days of work, and has spent over Rs 1,800 crore in the current fiscal, the governor informed.
The governor said over 1.5 lakh irrigation wells have been built in the last four years and another 50,000 wells are under construction. Around 1.30 lakh ponds have been dug under the state government’s “farm ponds on demand” scheme. In addition to this, 22,000 villages will be made drought-proof by May this year under the Jalyukta Shivar water conservation programme.
