The government today announced that over one lakh cultivators In Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh will be eligible for licence to grow opium.
As part of the annual licensing policy for opium, the government has said that all cultivators who have tendered an average yield of opium of not less than 53 kg per hectare in UP during the last crop year 2001-02 will be eligible for license.
Those cultivators who have ploughed back their entire poppy cultivation during the crop year 2001-02 under the supervision of the government or whose appeal against refusal of license has been allowed will also be eligible.
The policy aims to take care of genuine cultivators who could not sow opium crop or sowed opium in lesser area or in more than two plots due to water problem.
The individual license area per cultivator would depend upon the yield of opium tendered by the cultivator in the previous crop year.
