Team Herald
MARGAO: Even as Goan farmers feel dejected due to the drastic drop in government subsidy following the winding up of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, Agriculture Minister Vijai Sardesai believes agriculture will receive a boost with service providers being the key.
He said the first phase of the new agriculture policy that aims at giving the farmers service providers will be launched tomorrow at the Krishi Mela at Fatorda.
For the last five year, the Agriculture Department, Goa used to receive large sums of money under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana from the centre. It used to be disbursed to Goan farmers as subsidy. However that scheme has now been stopped and the Centre has not announced any new scheme to replace it. The newly announced Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayi Yojana by the centre will replace the scheme that was available in Goa for micro irrigation scheme.
Money received under the scheme used to be disbursed to Goan farmers for various purposes. For example, the construction of a poly house used to be totally financed by the government with Agriculture Department contributing half the cost and the balance half provided from the grants received from the Centre under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana.
However, now with Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana having been stopped, farmers get only 50% subsidy and have to bear the remaining cost of constructing the poly house.
Similarly, the composite subsidy on fertilizer which was funded largely under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana has been stopped. Farmers can now only get the subsidy available on individual manure or pesticide like purchase of neem cake or murate of phosphate.
The subsidy for fencing and mechanized implements like bush cutters, power tillers, etc. have also dwindled down as the central funds are not available to back what the Agriculture Department used to give earlier.
Vijai however said the department would not promote purchase of agriculture implements but instead encourage service providers or collective farmers where a group of farmers will come together to avail benefits under the various government schemes.
Presently this procedure is followed in the case of harvesters where a collective is given a subsidy to purchase the harvester but then the harvester owner has to collect only half the fee from the farmer. The remaining half is paid by the agriculture department when the harvester owner produces the signatures of the farmers whose crop has been harvested.
