Paddy land owners in Kerala to get ₹2,000 a hectare as royalty

As encouragement to retain fields for paddy cultivation

September 09, 2020 07:15 pm | Updated 07:15 pm IST - THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:

The State government will start paying a royalty of ₹2,000 per hectare to owners of cultivable paddy land from this year as an encouragement to them to retain the fields for paddy cultivation.

The government has earmarked ₹40 crore for the project from the ₹118.24 crore set aside in the 2020-21 State Budget for the integrated development of paddy cultivation.

Owners of paddy fields could apply for the royalty from September 11, Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar said on Wednesday. Owners of fields currently under paddy cultivation are eligible for the royalty.

Other crops

Paddy fields where pulses, vegetables, sesame and groundnuts are grown as part of the crop cycle too are eligible. In the case of paddy fields lying fallow, the owners will be eligible for the royalty provided they gave an undertaking that cultivation would be revived either by them or through other farmers or agencies.

However, if the land in question continues to lie fallow for three consecutive years they will lose their eligibility. The applications for the royalty should be filed online on www.aims.kerala.gov.in. The applications should be accompanied by the following documents — tax receipt for the current year/possession certificate, identification such as Aadhaar card, voter’s ID, driving licence and PAN card. The land owners can also approach the Akshaya Centres for filing the application.

Over the past several decades, land under paddy cultivation in Kerala has been on the decline. However, the government had been able to check the trend over the past four years, Mr. Sunil Kumar said. Production had risen by 2 lakh tonnes over this period, he said.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.