Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday announced a special package for drought affected farmers with crop loss of more than 33 per cent.
As per the announcement, affected small and marginal farmers will get Rs 6,800 per hectare in rain fed/non-irrigated areas, Rs 13,500 per hectare in irrigated area and Rs 18,000 per hectare for all types of perennial crops.
The Chief Minister announced 100 per cent remission of cess on land revenue and compulsory basic water rate for the affected farmers while additional 50 man-days will be added under MGNREGA. Tuition fees and examination fees in government and aided schools and colleges in drought affected areas will be waived off.
He directed that one lakh pulse mini kits, 30,000 oilseed mini kits and 20,000 vegetable mini-kits will be distributed while immediate steps will be taken to give quality seeds for Rabi season.
He announced that farmers will be provided 3,000 pump sets at 50 per cent subsidy, 1,000 solar pumps at 90 per cent subsidy and 3,000 sprayers at 50 per cent subsidy.
Chief Minister Patnaik said that the short term Kharif loans advanced in the affected areas will be extended up to September 30 to convert them to medium term and fresh finance for Rabi cultivation during current Rabi season.
He also said that the Centre will be requested to provide interest incentive of three per cent for medium term (conversion) loans for prompt paying farmers.
On November 1, at least 233173.8 hectares of crop land in 5,633 villages under 1186 Gram Panchayats (GPs) of 66 blocks and 16 urban local bodies (ULBs) of nine districts have been officially declared drought-affected in the State.
The affected districts are Baragarh, Bolangir, Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Sambalpur and Sundargarh.
