Farmers not happy with govt’s price compensation scheme

VEGETABLE GROWERS COMPLAIN PROCEDURE TO AVAIL BENEFITS UNDER ‘BHAVANTAR BHARPAYEE YOJANA’ IS CUMBERSOME

KARNAL: The much-hyped Bhavantar Bharpayee Yojana (price compensation scheme), launched by the BJP government in Haryana last year to protect farmers from sudden fall of prices of vegetables, has failed to impress growers.

The government had announced that it will compensate farmers if the prices of potato, tomato, onion and cauliflower fall below the prescribed limits. Under the scheme, compensation is paid if farmers are forced to sell potato and tomato below Rs 4 per kg and onion and cauliflower below Rs 5 per kg.

But the farmers are slamming the government for the alleged cumbersome procedure of the scheme as they have to get their crop registered before sowing it.

For this, they have to produce the revenue record of their land before officials. Besides, the government also fixes a deadline for selling their produce to avail the benefits.

The farmers said that to avail the scheme, they also have to procure a J form from buyers, but buyers are reluctant to give them the form as most of the produce is sold to private traders without any record.

“To get the benefit of the scheme, we have to sell our produce under J form, which is difficult to get as nobody provides us even a bill for the sale of our produce in the local market,” said Jasvinder Singh, a farmer of Kurukshetra.

According to farmers, another problem with the scheme is that potato growers have to sell their produce from February 1 to March 31. However, most of the potato growers in our region sell their produce by the end of January.

“Under this scheme, we have to harvest the crop after February, instead of December, which hardly leaves any time for us to sow the wheat crop,” said Raj Kumar, a potato farmer of Ladwa in Kurukshetra district.

He added, “If we avail the benefit of the scheme, we have no time for wheat sowing.”

Besides, the farmers said, the government has also fixed the limit of per acre yield and the benefits will be given accordingly. If a farmer’s production exceeds the limit, he will not get the benefit on the remaining produce.

They said that the average per acre yield of tomato remains around 250 quintal per acre, but the government has fixed the per acre limit at 100 quintal.

“If a farmer will get Rs 400 per quintal for 100 quintals, he will get only Rs 40,000 and it will not even cover the production cost,” said another farmer, Nirmal Singh of Karnal.

The growers demanded that the government should open its own purchase centres in all the markets if it wants to give the farmers any real benefits.

Also, the scheme will be able to cover the potato crop only from the next year as the registration period had already expired before the launch of scheme, and now the farmers are being forced to sell their produce at Rs 2-3 per kg.

When contacted, Dr Arjun Singh Saini, director general, horticulture department, said, “The government has issued the directions to the commission agents to provide J forms to farmers. If they don’t, farmers can complain against them.”

On the production limits of various crops fixed under the scheme, Saini said, “The scheme was launched to protect the farmers from losses if the prices fall below a limit and they fail to get the production cost.”