The uncertainty over the mode of payment of the assured investment assistance to farmers appears to be heading for a resolution.
Close to 60 % of the farmers are in favour of the assistance being paid as cheque or credited to their respective bank accounts. A survey conducted by the Agriculture Department revealed that 31.58 % farmers were in favour of receiving cheques and another 27.55 % wanted the assured assistance of ₹4,000 an acre for each season to be credited to their bank accounts.
In all, 26.59 % of farmers wanted the payment to be made in the form of cash, 6.81 % through post offices and another 6.44 % wanted the disbursement to be made through pre-loaded cards. A little over 1 % favoured disbursement of the amount through the primary agriculture cooperative societies. The survey was conducted on Tuesday covering 62,677 farmers spread over 624 villages of 551 mandals in 30 districts across the State.
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As many as 63.8 % farmers of Medchal district and 57.1 % farmers in Nizamabad district wanted payment to be made through cheques while 81.55 % of farmers in Warangal Urban and 62.38 % in Rajanna Sricilla districts wanted the amount credited to their respective accounts. As many as 62.17 % farmers of Asifabad district wanted assistance in the form of cash, according to the survey.
Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao would be briefed about the results of the survey so that he could take a call on the mode of disbursement of the promised assistance. The recently conducted land records purification and rectification exercise had revealed that there was 1.42 crore acre of land under cultivation in different parts of the State with 71.75 lakh farmers holding bank accounts.
The Cabinet sub-committee which was studying the issue received requests seeking exemption of land which was not under cultivation from the investment assistance scheme. The government had resolved to ensure that all farmers engaged in cultivation were covered under the scheme and the department had also assessed the extent of land holdings with individual farmers.
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It was revealed during the exercise that 97.2 % of farmers had holdings less than 10 acres while a minor percentage of them had holdings in excess of 20 acres. The government was committed to implement the scheme without any lapses and it had asked the bankers to keep cash reserves ready to meet the requirements. A delegation led by Finance Minister Eatala Rajender would meet the Union Finance Minister and officials of the RBI on need for adequate liquidity. to request them to keep adequate funds with banks for effective implementation of the scheme, he said.