Farmers in Chhattisgarh will get an input subsidy of Rs 10,000 per acre for cultivating some crops identified by the government other than paddy from the Kharif season 2021-22, an official said on Thursday.
The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel here on Wednesday in a bid to encourage cultivation of crops other than paddy in Chhattisgarh, which known as the ‘rice bowl’ of central India because of extensive cultivation of rice in the state.
The CM decided to expand the scope of Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana and to cover all the major Kharif crops like maize, soyabean, sugarcane, kodo-kutki, pulses along with paddy under it from the next season, the public relations department official said.
Under the scheme, farmers will be provided an input subsidy of Rs 9,000 per acre for paddy cultivation in the Kharif season 2020-21 and on all major Kharif crops, including paddy, from the next season, he said.
In the Kharif season 2019-20, the state government provided an input support of Rs 10,000 per acre to farmers for paddy cultivation.
“If the farmers, who had sown paddy in 2020-21, cultivate kodo-kutki, sugarcane, maize, soybean, pulses, oilseeds, aromatic paddy, other fortified varieties of paddy or carry out tree plantations in place of paddy in the same land, then they would be provided Rs 10,000 per acre as input subsidy, instead of Rs 9,000 per acre,” he said.
Farmers who will plant trees in the fields will be given an input subsidy of Rs 10,000 per year for the next three years, he added.
The subsidy amounts will be directly transferred to the accounts of beneficiaries, he added.
State Agriculture Minister Ravindra Choubey and other senior officials were present in the meeting.