Farmers and those associated with the agriculture sector may soon get to hear some good news. The Centre is likely to announce two agriculture schemes during the upcoming Union Budget, as per a report in The ET.
One scheme will be related to crop diversification while the other will give financial help to form Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), according to the report.
During the Budget speech in 2019, Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman told that the government has planned to set up 10,000 FPOs in the next five years.
A government official told ET that “The main challenge before Farmer Producer Organizations is availability of credit as the banks don’t provide them loans owing to unsecured returns”. The official further added, “With government’s equity, the FPOs would be able to have easy access to credit backed by a sovereign guarantee. And this will help Farmer Producer Organizations expand their operations”.
The FPOs would help farmers boost their income through market access as well as collective bargaining. Each Farmer Producer Organization is operated as separate business units wherein profits are shared by the farmer members.
Besides financing, the ministry of agriculture will also provide training to farmers who are part of the organization, the report said.
Talking about the crop diversification programme, it has been assumed that the Centre might allocate Rs 500 to 600 crore to promote crops other than paddy in states like Haryana, Punjab and western Uttar Pradesh where the groundwater level is quite low.
