Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday said that the state government has earmarked Rs 1000 crore to help the Paddy farmers.

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole announced Rs 15,000 per hectare as an incentive to paddy farmers.

He further said that he had demanded Rs 25,000 per hectare as an incentive for these farmers, however, the state authorities supplied solely Rs 15,000.

“Most of the farmers are going after the cash crops and that depleted paddy and food gain growing fields in Maharashtra. If this trend continues, then the state or the country, to a larger extent will face a shortage of foodgrains therefore the state government has to offer as much incentive to attract the farmers who grow paddy or foodgrain crops,” Congress president Nana Patole said.

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Misuse of the old scheme

Earlier the Maharashtra government offered Rs 700 per quintal as an incentive for paddy growers. In this scheme, the farmers were allowed to sell up to 50 quintals of paddy. However, this scheme was misused. Farmers availed the benefits for more than 50 quintals in most places.

According to a senior government official, there were several complaints received against this scheme. It was found out that to avail the benefit of this incentive scheme, the neighboring states also started bringing their paddy to sell in Maharashtra.

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He said, “Therefore, it was decided that rather than offering the incentive per quintal, the government decided to offer it per hectare.”

“Only the actual farmers from Maharashtra will be able to avail of the scheme”, he added.

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