Odisha Channel Bureau
Bhubaneswar: Happy to launch historic Rs. 10,000 crore Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) to further accelerate agricultural prosperity in Odisha. It will cover over 30 lakh small and marginal farmers, benefiting 92% of the cultivators, said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in a tweet after announcing the scheme on Friday.
Patnaik announced KALIA after the State Cabinet headed by him approved the scheme to empower small, marginal and landless farmers as well as landless labourers. The Rs.10,180 crore scheme covers 92% of cultivators, loanee and non-loanee farmers, share croppers and landless agricultural labourers.
The Chief Minister announced the new scheme while rejecting the growing demand from the opposition political parties and farmers’ organisations for farm loan waiver.
The scheme, which will be implemented over a period of three years till 2020-21, will be reviewed in 2020-21 for further modifications.
Stating that over 30 lakh small and marginal farmers will be covered under the scheme, Patnaik said that financial assistance of Rs. 10,000 per family (Rs, 5000 each for Kharif and Rabi seasons) will be provided for taking up cultivation.
Farmers will have complete independence to take up interventions as per their needs under the scheme to cover 92% cultivators of the State.
Describing the scheme as progressive in nature, Patnaik said it will greatly benefit share croppers/actual cultivators most of whom own very small land. The assistance will be for five cropping seasons spanning three years from 2018-19 to 2021-22, to ensure comprehensive coverage.
Under the initiative, 10 lakh landless households will be supported with Rs. 12,500 each to take up goat rearing, mini layer units, duckery, mushroom cultivation, bee keeping and purchase fishery kits.
The landless households will have the option to select any of the units. This will mostly benefit the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe households for which Rs. 1250 crore will spent in three years.
The scheme also has provisions for the farmers who may not be able to take up cultivation and some of the landless agricultural labourers who may not be able to avail livelihood options due to old age, disability, disease and other reasons.
Patnaik said that annual financial assistance of Rs. 10,000 will be provided per household to take care of their sustenance. The deserving families for such assistance will be identified and selected by the gram panchayats. About 10 lakh households will be covered over two years under the scheme at a cost of Rs. 1000 crore.
Further, life insurance cover of Rs. 2 lakh and additional personal accident cover of Rs. 2 lakh will be provided to both cultivators and landless agricultural labourers covering about 57 lakh households.
“KALIA is progressive, inclusive and will make a direct attack on poverty by way of massive investment in this sector and making benefits reach the most needy through direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode,” said Patnaik.
