In probably the biggest package for farmers in the recent past, deputy chief ministerDevendra Fadnavis, who also holds the finance portfolio, on Thursday allocated around Rs 30,000 crore towards sustainable farming and prosperous schemes such as Rs 12,000 honorarium per annum to all the farmers under the Namo Shetkari Mahasamman Nidhi.
In his budget speech in the assembly, Fadnavis said that the state government will also dole out a certain amount towards crop insurance to the farmers besides huge debt incentives to paddy growers and farmers who have opted for short-loans.
Under the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Shetkari Karjmukti Yojana, farmers who regularly repay short-term crop loans have been given an incentive of up to Rs 50,000, which was announced in the last two budgets, but not distributed.
“Under this scheme, an amount of Rs 4,683 crore has been directly disbursed to the bank accounts of 12.84 lakh eligible account holders by the end of February 15, 2023,”said Fadnavis pointing out this debt incentive as a major boost to the farmers.
“Value addition process in crops and fruit crops will also be financed by preparing an integrated crop-based project plan for taluka, district wise groups of farmers. This will substantially increase the income of farmers. An outlay of Rs 30,00 crore will be made available for this scheme for the next five years,”he added.