The Odisha government has come up with a support scheme whose primary targets are small farmers, cultivators and landless agricultural labourers. Called KALIA, the scheme involves payments to encourage cultivation and associated activities.
The scheme
Short for Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation, KALIA was launched last month and completed its first phase of registration Tuesday. Under the scheme, Rs 10,180 crore will be spent over three years until 2020-21 in providing financial assistance to cultivators and landless agricultural labourers. At the Krushi Odisha 2019 event in Bhubaneswar Tuesday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik claimed the scheme will benefit 92% of the cultivators in the state and include every category from big farmers to landless cultivators.
Farmers, big or small
All farmers will be provided Rs 10,000 per family as assistance for cultivation. Each family will get Rs 5,000 separately in the kharif and rabi seasons, for five cropping seasons between 2018-19 and 2021-22.
Although the scheme is not linked to the amount of land owned, the government insists it will “greatly benefit” sharecroppers and cultivators, most of whom own little or no land. “The scheme has been made equitable, looking at the best-case/worst-case scenario problems of a small farmer. At the same time, we don’t want to target only certain farmers and leave out others; whether you own one acre or five acres, you get the same financial assistance,” said an Agriculture Department official.
Work for landless
This targets 10 lakh landless households, and specifically SC and ST families. They will be supported with a unit cost of Rs 12,500 for activities like goat rearing, mushroom cultivation, beekeeping, poultry farming and fishery.
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