With an aim to boost the chief minister’s polyhouse scheme in Uttarakhand, the state government has announced a hefty 30 per cent subsidy for farmers.
Farmers will now have to put in only 20 per cent of the total cost of the polyhouse which comes around Rs 1 lakh, a top government official on Monday said. A decision to provide 30 per cent subsidy to farmers was taken by the state Cabinet recently.
However, the government has now withdrawn other incentives like the cash subsidy of Rs 10,000 as well as free disbursement of seeds worth Rs 5000, official sources said.
Faced with factors like undulating topography, fragile environment, fragmented and small holdings, little or no irrigation facilities, poor marketing structure that hamper the growth of the horticulture sector in the state, the horticulture department last year had launched an ambitious project to set up cluster-based 20,000 modern polyhouses to boost production of vegetables and flowers. Since the scheme had hit a roadblock, the target was brought down to 6,000 few months ago.
In the new revised target, the state Cabinet has now decided to set up only 1300 polyhouses in the state with 100 each in all the 13 districts.
Under the chief minister’s Protected Cultivation Scheme, farmers are being given 50 per cent central subsidy under the Horticulture Technology Mission and the rest of the amount was being made available through loans from various banks for setting up polyhouses.
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“Since the response was very lacklustre, we have decided to raise the subsidy level to 80 per cent which includes 50 per cent from the centre under horticulture mission and 30 per cent from the state government,” said the official. Till now, only 10 to 20 polyhouses had been set up in the state.
The polyhouses are proposed to be constructed with an area size ranging from 100 sq meter to 200 sq meter.
Earlier the government had selected six companies like Jain Irrigation to construct all these polyhouses in the state under the scheme. Keeping in view the tough geographical conditions of the state and poor response, the government is now contemplating a move under which farmers can construct their polyhouses on their own.
Through this project, the government is aiming to increase four to ten times higher productivity of cash crops. The project will also provide support for capacity building of local youth and employment of local artisans in the construction of polyhouse designs.