In the modern age of high-tech agri-practices, the Madhya Pradesh government is mulling offering subsidies on bullocks used for tilling and cultivation. State department of farmers’ welfare and agriculture is chalking out a detailed plan in this regard.
“We will soon offer subsidies to farmers on purchase of bullock for farming purpose. The state has a large number of marginal or small farmers, who are mainly dependent upon bullock,” minister for agriculture Ramkrsihna Kusmaria said. The minister is advocating organic farming strongly and has laid emphasis on total ban on chemical fertilisers in the state.
Madhya Pradesh had discontinued subsidy on low horse power tractors (25-30 hp) few years back as bankers had over-financed the low-hp tractors to meet the set annual targets. According to Nabard norms, loan on tractors are viable only if operational for minimum eight hours. “We had to discontinue subsidy as a large number of small farmers faced sever financial burden due to repayment of loans against the tractors,” an official in the department of finance said. The size of subsidy is yet to decided. The agriculture minister has also planned to offer bullock-operated agri-implement at highly subsidised rates.
“The only issue with farm implement is value added tax levied at 5 per cent in the state, the government must abolish the tax to increase the use of farm implement in the state, this will increased yield significantly,” said an expert.Of the total 7.4 million farmers,2.9 million are marginal farmers and 2 million are small farmers.
