Taking a cue from union Government’s Pahal scheme in which gas subsidy is transferred directly to consumers, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to transfer hybrid seed subsidy directly to the farmers bank account instead of giving it to the seed companies.
The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme is to be launched from forthcoming kharif season, in which paddy is the main crop. A letter to this effect was sent by UP principal secretary Amit Mohan Prasad to state agriculture director last week.
Prior to this the government had a provision of transferring the subsidy amount to seed manufacturing companies. There were complaints that to get this subsidy some of the companies used to manipulate sales figures.
Officials said it came to light that in previous years some seed companies had charged inflated prices from farmers under subsidy scheme and sold the same seed at a lower price in open market.
Under the new scheme, hybrid seed companies will be bound to file affidavit with the state government affirming that they would not sell the seed at a lower price in open market in comparison to what they would charge from the farmers under DBT scheme.
"Seed companies would compulsorily provide security money to the state government to the tune of Rs 10 lakh on conducting sale proceedings in proportion of 100 blocks.
This security money would be in the form of performance bank guarantee. This provision would act as buffer if the quality of seed is found to be inferior and the farmers suffered losses at a later stage,” officials said.
As per the order the farmers would be allowed to buy the hybrid seed only for a maximum of 2 hectares of agricultural land under the DBT scheme. The farmers would be free to purchase any variety of hybrid seed of any company but it should compulsorily be notified by the Centre.
Only those varieties of hybrid seeds would be allowed for sale which are found suitable in terms of healthy germination, resistance against diseases and having a record of high production in the climate of a specific district.
Official said the DBT scheme would be implemented from the forthcoming Kharif season. For this the process of online registration of farmers has begun and it would continue till April 26. The farmers would be selected for this scheme on the basis of 'first come first serve' basis on April 29 and the lists would be displayed at each block office in the districts.