Centre to finalise farm scheme by July: Montek

The government will come out with details of a new scheme for farm sector projects by states in the next four-six weeks to implement the Rs 25,000-crore plan announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last month.

"We are currently working with the Ministry of Agriculture on implementing a new additional central assistance scheme," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said here today.

States had been advised to come up with their own agricultural plan, which should be consistent with their target for the sector and also with the country's aim to register a 4 per cent growth rate in farming, Ahluwalia said.

"We expect that they (states) will provide their own resources up to a base line as a share of the total plan which we will determine, perhaps in the current year itself. Any expenditure above the base line can be met with a central contribution on a sharing basis," he added.

The new scheme would not be subject to crop specific conditionalities like the present centrally-sponsored schemes, the deputy chairman clarified.