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Beginning this year, farmers in Telangana will get ₹4,000 each in Kharif and Rabi seasons for every acre of land they own. The Investment Support Scheme, titled Rythu Lakshmi, has been allocated ₹12,000 crore for 2018-19.
About 36 lakh farm households will get ₹8,000 a year for an acre they possess. The first of the cheques will be issued next month ahead of the kharif preparations. In Rabi, the cheques will be issued in the month of November. The farmers can use this amount for procuring inputs for the farm season.
‘Interest burden’
“The farmer is getting caught in the vicious debt trap with huge interest burden when he borrows money to meet his investment needs for cultivation. To save the farmers from this distress, the government has decided to provide the financial help,” Etela Rajender, Telangana Finance Minister, said, while presenting the Budget on Thursday.
The State government has established Rythu Samanvaya Samiti (Farmers’ Coordination Committees) with Gutha Sukhender Reddy as its Chairman. The Committee, which was registered as a Corporation, will oversee the identification of the beneficiaries and distribution of the cheques.
As many as 1.61 lakh farmers have been registered as members in the samitis in the State. While village-level committees are run by a 15-member team, the mandal and district- level committees are run by 24 members each. The State-level committee has 42 members, which includes farmers, agricultural officers, scientists and experts.
A step ahead
Besides acting as a link between the government and farmers, the committees will work with farmers and buyers to ensure that the latter get remunerative prices.
“If market prices are not remunerative, the committees will step in to purchase the agri produce. The government will guarantee the procurement and provide necessary funds,” the Minister said.
The Opposition and farmers’ organisations, however, have criticised the government for excluding tenant farmers and those practise shifting cultivation from the investment support scheme.
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