the goan I network
PANAJI
The Agriculture department has introduced a scheme for assistance to purchase agriculture inputs targetting the farming community among the economically weak Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes.
Under the scheme, these farmers will be entitled to get up to Rs 12,000 per hectare of land annually. The government notified the scheme on Friday and said it will be applicable for the next five years.
As per the scheme, the government will give 75 per cent of the cost of the inputs such as seed, planting material, pesticides, soil conditioners bio-fertiliser among others to the beneficiary farmers.
Farmers have to produce the bills of inputs and after approval, the grant will be released.
The quantity of the inputs will be ascertained based on area cultivated, the type of crop and recommended dosage. The maximum area to be considered for subsidy for an individual farmer is two hectares for one crop season. The maximum subsidy of Rs 24,000 will be released to each farmer annually, under the scheme.
This is probably the only exclusive scheme for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe farmers. Earlier the Goa government had a subsidy scheme for farmers from the general category towards power tillers and other mechanical instruments, while scheduled caste and scheduled tribe farmers had a little extra benefits under the same scheme.
Besides there are other Central schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme which provides Rs 6,000 per year to the farmers.
