Dryland farmers hit jackpot as CM spreads Rs 3,500-cr bounty

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced a number of new schemes, including "Raitha Belaku," and dolled out sops to the farming community in order to woo them ahead of the polls.

The chief minister has allocated Rs 5,849 crore to the sector in the coming financial year - Rs 769 crore more than the current year budget. In a major relief to dryland farmers, the chief minister has proposed to provide one-time financial assistance up to Rs 10,000 under Raitha Belaku. Each farmer will get Rs 5,000 per hectare and a maximum of Rs 10,000.

Siddaramaiah has earmarked a whopping Rs 3,500 crore under this scheme, which will benefit an estimated 70 lakh farmers in the state. The amount will be directly transferred to the bank accounts of the farmers.

"This novel scheme bears testimony to the pro-farmer concern of our government. This bold step is a small effort of the government to show its indebtedness to farmers," said Siddaramaiah stated in his budget speech.

He has also announced to waive interest on co-operative crop loans availed till September 2015. Besides, he has waived farmer's cooperative loan up to Rs 1 lakh, in case of his/her death. A total allocation of Rs 5,837 crore has been made under the cooperation department.

A significant chunk of the allocated amount will also go for crop loan waiver of Rs Rs 8,165 crore announced, last year.

Siddaramaiah has given Rs 600 crore for the Krishi Bhagya; has proposed to
increase the area under organic farming (Rs 50 cr) and minor millets (Rs 24 cr);
and a special package of Rs 50 cr for farmers growing groundnuts.

Siddaramaiah has also proposed to set up an agriculture college in Chamarajanagar; a new Agricultural Research Centre at Muddebihal of Vijayapura district; and Nanjundaswamy Research Center at Gandhi Krishi Vignana Kendra (GKVK), Bengaluru at Rs 1 crore.

Sops for shepherds

Siddaramaiah, who belongs to the Kuruba community, has doled out series of sops for sheep and goat rearers. Establishing 25,000 sheep rearing units at Rs 187.5 crore; Rs 4 crore for procuring protection gear to 4,000 migratory shepherds; modernisation of 75 sheep/goat markets at Rs 7.5 crore; and waiver of Rs 50,000 loan obtained by shepherds from cooperative banks (Rs 52 cr) are some of the highlights.

Siddaramaiah, who holds the Finance portfolio, has also announced,  an allocation of Rs 2,377 crore to Animal Husbandry, has proposed to set up  disease diagnostic labs in 16 districts; and also an incentive of Rs 55 crore for 14,000 milk producers' cooperative societies.

Siddaramaiah has
claim-ed that his government has spent Rs 19,561 crore in the agriculture sector till March 2018, which, he said, shows an increase of 256% in expenditure when compared to the period 2008 to 2013.