Following Telangana model Jharkhand government has announced that it will provide farmers with a financial support of Rs 5,000 per acre for kharif crops, under the scheme called the Mukhyamantri Krishi Ashirwad Yojana.
Telangana offers Rs 8000 per acre to farmers and the model is said to have been imported from USA. The model also envisages cessation of all other subsidies.
Sources say, trying to measure up to what the newly election Congress governments are doing, the BJP govt is showing sympathy for the farmers in the wake of the party’s defeat in recent assembly elections.
According to an estimate, the scheme will benefit 22.76 lakh small and marginal farmers, and will cost the exchequer Rs 2,250 crore.
Sources familiar with developments in agriculture believe populist measures such as loan waiver for farmers will discourage investment in farming and thus inflict a long term damage on the agricultural sector in the country.