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New Delhi, Oct 8: Two years after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched the rehabilitation package for the farmers in suicide prone districts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra, the government on Wednesday decided to extend the scheme by two years and make some modifications in the scheme for better implementation.
“Feedback received from state governments and other implementing agencies indicates that implementation of the rehabilitation package has resulted in substantial improvement in the ground level conditions and mitigation of farmers’ distress. However, they have suggested some amendments to the existing interventions for giving a sharper edge and increase the pace of implementation of the interventions brought about through the rehabilitation package,” finance minister P Chidambaram said. The rehabilitation package with a total amount of Rs 16,978.69 crore has now been extended till September 30, 2011 and the Centre has given in principle approval for need based additional funds for the implementation of the package. The farmer area limit under the Seed Replacement Programme has been doubled to two hectares.
The revamped package would include a women farmers’ empowerment programme. An empowered committee would be set up under the secretary, department of animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries with representatives from department of agriculture, Planning Commission and ministry of finance as members of the committee to take decisions regarding medication or inclusion of new components under subsidiary income activities.
Another new initiative would be the ‘cafeteria approach’ for participatory Watershed Development Programmes (WDP) where state governments, with prior permission from the ministry of agriculture, would have the flexibility to adopt either the models circulated by Nabard or Sujala model of WDP being implemented in Karnataka with World Bank assistance. The states can also take up models in accordance with common guidelines for WDPs as approved by the National Rainfed Area Authority but funds would be provided as par the Watershed Development Fund norms.
The rehabilitation package announced by the Prime Minister in 2006 consists of Rs 10,579.43 crore as subsidy/grants and Rs 6,399.26 crore as loan to the distressed farmers. The package aims at establishing a sustainable and viable farming and livelihood support system for the farmers through debt relief, complete institutional credit coverage, crop-centric approach to agriculture, assured irrigation facilities and subsidiary income opportunities through horticulture. To help the farmers, Rs 50 lakh per district has also been provided from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund as ex-gratia assistance.
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