Karnataka - Mangalore   

Dakshina Kannada farmers may not benefit from Suvarna Bhoomi Yojane

MANGALORE: The “suvarna bhoomi yojane” for farmers announced by the Chief Minister B. S. Yeddyurappa in the agriculture budget for 2011-12 will not help majority of the farmers in Dakshina Kannada, according to senior officials in the Departments of Agriculture and Horticulture here.

It was because guidelines of the scheme and the agriculture pattern of Dakshina Kannada do not match , they told The Hindu.According to the scheme, families of small and marginal farmers (holding below five acres of land) would be given a financial aid of Rs. 10,000 a year in two instalments for raising crops in up to an extent of two acres.

Officials said the guidelines did not allow for granting the aid for growing inter-crops in existing farm land. The grant did not cover cultivation of paddy. The district had only areca, coconut, rubber plantations, and paddy fields to some extent. Farmers commonly grow cocoa, pepper, and banana as inter-crop in those plantations. Even if they continue to grow them they were not eligible to get the aid.

If a farmer is to get the aid, crops including arecanut, coconut, oil seeds, pulses, fruits, and cotton, will have to be grown in new plots not exceeding two acres. It means they will have to extend their farm land.

Are small and marginal farmers economically stable to extend their farmland, a senior official wanted to know. It needed huge investment and poor farmers would not be able to bear it, he said.

The officials said the aid could be given for taking up sericulture, apiculture, fish rearing, and for organic farming. But not many farmers in the district were involved in these activities. Hence the scheme would not help a majority of farmers in the district, they added

The meeting of Karnataka Development Programme Review Committee chaired by Minister in-charge of Dakshina Kannada J. Krishna Palemar here on Monday did not discuss this aspect much.

Recommendation

The meeting only resolved to recommend to the government to include paddy in the scheme.

An Agriculture Department official told The Hindu that heavy rains did not allow for growing oil seeds and pulses in the district during khariff (rainy season). They could be grown only as rabi (winter season) and summer crops.

The official said 32,408 hectares were under paddy in the district in 2010 khariff. Even if farmers brought more area under paddy in this khariff they would not get the aid under the scheme.

Ravikirana Punacha, working president, Dakshina Kannda unit of Hasiru Sene (youth wing), Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, told The Hindu that scheme was not suitable for the district.

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