Much to the delight of the farming community in the state, the Andhra Pradesh government has proposed a bonus offer for all farmers who are actively involved in farming.

As a first step, chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy initiated a dialogue with his cabinet colleagues and officials at a recent review meeting. Though state finance minister K Rosaiah said this was just an idea initiated by the chief minister, sources said the chief minister had asked officials to prepare a draft working paper.

Sources said Reddy had already made up his mind to offer bonus at the rate of 10%. ?He (chief minister) has asked the finance department to make a provision for about Rs 4,000 crore in the budget”, sources told FE.

The bonus to farmers will be implemented independent of other schemes, the sources added.

The bonus idea cropped up following the Opposition’s criticism of the loan waiver scheme, announced with this year’s Union Budget proposals. They pointed out that the waiver scheme would only benefit the defaulters.

Interestingly, holding similar views, chief minister Reddy said he wanted benefits even for the farmers who had repaid the loans as per schedule as also tenant farmers.

Over 70 lakh farmers in Andhra Pradesh will not get the benefits from loan waiver scheme since they have either paid the loans or have been denied agricultural loans for being tenant farmers.

According to the existing plan, the bonus scheme is applicable to all farmers, with a rider ? they will have to sell their produce only to the registered buyers having obtained the ?tax index number? (TIN) under the value-added tax rules. This would help the government monitor the movement of agriculture products into the market.

Officials said this measure would further control the rise in prices of agriculture products, including vegetables and fruits. Besides, it will encourage farmers to grow market-oriented products. Further, the officials felt there was need to set up an independent commission or committee to decide the percentage of bonus, depending on the supply-demand levels.