The Haryana Government will reward farmers with tractors, motorcycles, laptops and more to promote agriculture.
With a view to incentivise farmers to bring their produce to the mandis (grain markets), Haryana Government has launched ‘Krishak Upahar Yojana’ under which prizes worth Rs 12 crore would be provided annually to such farmers who brought their produce, with minimum value of Rs 5,000 to the mandis.
Haryana Agriculture Minister OP Dhankar while addressing a press conference on Thursday said that a farmer selling produce with minimum value of Rs 5000 would be given J-Form which would be considered as his lottery number. As many as 32,072 prizes would be given against J-Form.
84 tractors would be given away in prizes on an average of four tractors per district. Besides, 188 motorcycles, 872 cultivators, 608 laptops, 11,020 spray pumps and 19,300 wall clocks would also be given through the lottery system to the farmers.
This scheme would be applicable only to private procurement of produce other than those purchased at the Minimum Support Price fixed by the State Government. These include crops like mustard, basmati, cotton, guar and millet etc. The prizes would be given twice a year for both Rabi and Kharif seasons.
Dhankar said that 27 mandis of the state would be developed as e-mandis and linked with the national agriculture market on the pattern of Karnataka to enable the farmers to get good price for their harvest anywhere.
He said that the Marketing Board had categorised the mandis of the state according to their annual market fee. The fee of A1 category mandis including Sirsa, Kaithal, Karnal and Gohana, is between Rs 15 crore and Rs 25 crore. Similarly, the Annual Market Fee of A2 and A3 categories is between Rs 10 crore and Rs 15 crore; and Rs 5 crore and Rs 10 crore, respectively.
The Minister added that incentives would also be given to the employees of Haryana State Agriculture Marketing Board for good performance. The employees in various mandis would be given target for collecting revenue according to the circumstances of the area. The employees achieving these targets would be given two to four per cent advance increment. Besides, bonus would also be given to all employees if they delivered outstanding overall performance on revenue front.
Dhankar said that the State Government planned to frame a promotion policy for traders. Traders who brought more revenue for the Marketing Board would be honoured under the new policy.
The State Government has started procurement of bajra this year and keeping in view the farmers’ interests, paddy procurement was started one week earlier this year. Smart Cards would be given to the farmers under the ‘Atal Kheti Baadi Khata Yojana’, he added.
Haryana's farmers mainly cultivate wheat, paddy, cotton and some other crops. The government is eyeing procurement of 35 lakh tonnes of paddy this season.
Together with neighbouring Punjab, Haryana contributes nearly 70 percent of food grains to the national kitty.