State-level cash support to farmers may cross Rs 30,000 crore a year

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi categorically discarding a nationwide farm debt waiver in an interview earlier this week, a direct cash support to farmers on the linesof 

Telangana’s Rythu Bandhu scheme is being looked at as a viable alternative by the Centre. 

Three states, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal, have already announced their own version of a cash-support scheme for farmers. According to estimates, these states, and 

Telangana, will together spend Rs 31,000 crore on it per year. About 18 million farmer and labourer households would benefit. 

Coincidently, these are the states where the average size of land owned by farmers is the lowest.