Chief Minister Raman Singh urged people on Sunday to participate in large numbers in the plantation programmes to be organised under Hariyar Chhattisgarh campaign on July 20 across the State.
Singh made the announcement while addressing people through monthly radio programme ‘Raman Ke Goth’ from Raipur centre of Akashwani.
“This year, Chhattisgarh Government has set the target of planting eight crore saplings in the State for which a special campaign will be launched from July 20. We all will pledge to meet the target,’’ Singh said in his monthly radio talk.
He added that on July 20, plantation programmes will be organised in all the districts, tehsils, blocks and panchayats of Chhattisgarh. District Collectors and Forest Department Officials have issued instructions for preparations of this programme.
People will be provided with saplings for plantation on their own land or farm also. Saplings for fruit bearing trees are also available. Keeping in view the ongoing rainy season, Chief Minister’s July 9 radio programme was based on agricultural schemes.
He said that this year, State Government has set the target of sowing in 48 lakh hectare area of State in kharif season. This includes, sowing of paddy in 36 lakh 50 thousand hectare, lentils in four lakh hectares, oilseeds in three lakh hectare and vegetables-sugarcane etc in nearly 1.5 lakh hectares.
Chief Minister informed the listeners that this year production of nearly 91 lakh 76 thousand metric tonnes of food grains, lentils and vegetables etc is expected.
Singh said, “for convenience of farmers, we have formulated suitable schemes to ensure timely availability of all they require for farming. This year, seven lakh 45 thousand quintals of seeds and 10 lakh 65 thousand metric tons of fertilizers have been made available for kharif season.”
Interest-free loan facility to 11 lakh farmers
Chief Minister said in his radio talk that earlier farmers had to take agriculture loans at interest rate of 14 per cent. The high interest rate used to make it difficult for the farmers to repay the loan and becoming defaulter thereby used to hinder their progress.
“We have broken this trap of loans with high interest rate. We have gradually brought down the interest rates and now we are providing interest-free short term agriculture loans to farmers, benefitting 11 lakh farmers every year,’’ Singh informed.
Earlier farmers in the State used to avail loans of Rs 150 crore only, but now they avail interest free agriculture loans worth nearly Rs 3000 crore. This shows the great leap in farmers’ economic condition in Chhattisgarh.
Singh said— now that farmers are availing 20 times more loans than before, their production value has also increased. He said- paddy is lifeline of Chhattisgarh, this is why we have made an excellent transparent system for paddy procurement, which is appreciated across the country.
6.22 cr metric tons of paddy procured from farmers in 13 yrs
Chief Minister said— 1,989 centres are there in Chhattisgarh, wherein 6 crore 22 lakh metric tons of paddy have been procured in last 13 years and nearly Rs 64 thousand 730 crores have been paid to farmers against the procurement.
There has been significant positive change in lives of farmers due to the measures taken for reducing input cost of agriculture, good crop and excellent procurement arrangements.
First Kisaan Bazaar started in Dhamtari
First ever ‘Kisaan Bazaar’ of the State has been established in Dhamtari, on initiative of district administration, wherein producer and customer will come together without any interference of middlemen.
In this way, vegetable producers are getting good value for their crops and citizens are getting fresh vegetables at reasonable price. This ‘Kisaan Bazaar’ is equipped with the facilities of verification of vegetable sellers, registration, counter allotment, weighing machine etc.
Price of the vegetables is decided by a committee. Daily nearly 1.50 tons of vegetables are sold in two hours in the morning. I feel this kind of arrangement should be there in other districts too, he added.
Chhattisgarh is the first to provide free electricity to pumps of 5 horse power capacity
Chief Minister said—Chhattisgarh is the first state to provide free electricity supply for pumps of 5 horse power capacity. 7500 units of free electricity per pump is provided every year, due to which each beneficiary farmer gets annual benefit of Rs 31 thousand on an average. Under this scheme, farmers belonging to SC/ST are availing benefits of Rs 50 thousand each on an average. In addition, ‘Saur Sujala Yojana’—the scheme of distributing 51 thousand solar pumps in two years, has been launched for places where facilitating electricity supply through traditional ways is not possible. Under this scheme, pumps worth nearly Rs 3 lakh to 5 lakh are provided to farmers at Rs 7 thousand to 20 thousand only. 12 thousand farmers have already availed this scheme. Raman Singh also informed the listeners that one ‘kisaan sangwari’ has been nominated in every two village and ‘kisaan mitaan kendra’ have been opened in every district headquarters to facilitate the benefits of the scheme to farmers of the State. He said— in kisaan mitaan kendra, farmers get all the necessary information under one roof along with the support and guidance of departments concerned.
Subsidy for drip-sprinkler
Raman Singh informed in today’s episode of ‘Raman Ke Goth’ that the State Government is providing subsidy of Rs 11,800 for sprinkler to small and marginal farmers and that of Rs 7800 to other farmers for the same. likewise, subsidy of Rs 40 thousand to 60 thousand is being provided per hectare for drip. In year 2016-17, number of target beneficiaries was 29 thousand, which has been increased to one lakh in year 2017-18. Decision to avail the loan of Rs 193 crore from NABARD for micro-irrigation and provide irrigation facility on large scale has been taken.
Bonus payment to more than 12 thousand sugarcane farmers of state
Raman Singh told listeners that four sugar factories have been established in the cooperative sector of the State. Sugarcane bonus at the rate of nearly Rs 33 thousand on an average has been paid to more than 12 thousand farmers of state. Organic certification campaign is being conducted in villages of six districts namely Sarguja, Surajpur, Jashpurnagar, Kondagaon, Dantewada and Korba, under traditional agriculture development scheme. In these districts, more than eight thousand farmers of 9 thousand acre area have been included. Under Organic Farming Mission, action plan to make five districts namely Gariband, Narayanpur, Bijapur, Sukma and Dantewada, and one development block in each of the remaining 22 districts completely organic, has been prepared. Chief Minister informed that under ‘per drop more crop’ scheme, drip has been established in 4860 hectare area and sprinkler system has been installed in more than 23 thosand hectare area at the cost of Rs 59 crore.