Hyderabad: The Telangana state government’s ambitious Rs 8,000 per acre, per year, financial assistance for farmers from May this year may come with a rider.
The amount will be disbursed in two instalments of Rs 4,000 each, for the kharif and rabi seasons.
However, not every one of the 71 lakh farmers will get the same amount because the government wants to take the average crop sown area as the benchmark. At least that is the recommendation of the government sub-committee. The total crop sown area is 1.42 crore acres. But it is only in the kharif season, in June, that there is full-scale cultivation.
The rabi crop, sown in October, is at just 56 lakh acres due to non-availability of water.
This means that more than half of the total cultivable land in the state will not be eligible for the financial assistance in the rabi season.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has to take a final call on this recommendation.
The burden on the state exchequer in the kharif season has been estimated at Rs 5,731 crore. In the rabi season it will come down drastically to Rs 2,238 crore as the cultivated area is less. The overall burden on the state government per year has been pegged at Rs 7,969 crore.
Telangana government has no data on kharif, rabi farming
The state government may also exclude uncultivated agriculture land from the scheme. Agricultural land around Hyderabad that was purchased for real estate purposes has not been cultivated for long and will not be considered for the scheme.
Such uncultivated agricultural lands exist in villages surrounded by district headquarters and municipal corporations where there is a realty boom as the owners are keen on developing layouts on those lands. Another problem the government has to solve is how it will distinguish farmers who sow crops in two seasons and those who do so only once.
“This is where the Farmers’ Coordination Councils appointed by government in each village will come into the picture and assist officials in identifying the eligible farmers for kharif and rabi,” said a source from the government. “They will also assist in identifying uncultivated agriculture lands for exclusion from the sop,” the source added.With the Chief Minister announcing that the government will present a special Agriculture Budget in the Assembly from this year, arrangements are being made to allocate Rs 8,000 crore for the farmers sop alone.
