Paddy bonus delayed in Rhythu Bharosa implementation

The implementation of Rs 500 bonus per quintal for paddy, one of the key components of the Rhythu Bharosa, that figured in the six guarantees of the Congress government in the State has been put on the back burner for now.

Paddy growers, who have been finding it tough to get a remunerative price for their produce, have pinned hopes on the promise. Its implementation is going to cost the government little over Rs 6000 crores, according to officials who added that it would be hard to meet the expenditure at this juncture.

As part of its preliminary exercise to put the promise into implementation, there was enough brainstorming at various levels involving all the stake-holder agencies.

The government was said to be weighing various options to minimise the burden on the exchequer. It was sounded a caution against implementation of the promise at this stage as it could turn out to be an additional incentive for farmers for adding further to paddy production which had already crossed three core metric tonne mark in the State.

Procurement of paddy as well as marketing it on such a



large scale turned out to be a tough task.

The scope for restricting the bonus of Rs 500 per quintal only to the Grade A variety was also examined by the agencies concerned. But no concrete decision could be taken up so far to implement it for the Rabi season or during the first 100 days of the Congress rule in the State.

So is the case with the promise of enhanced crop investment support of Rs 15000 per acre for the farmers and Rs 12000 assistance per annum to the agriculture labourers.

The entire Rythu Bharosa component is likely to come into consideration only with effect from the Kharif 2024, once the budgetary allocations were made for their implementation.

In the interim budget introduced by the Congress government after assuming office, an allocation of only Rs 19,746 crores was made for agriculture and Rs 28,024 crores for irrigation. Only a section of farmers with land holdings up to three to four acres had received the Rythu Bandhu assistance so far. The government was planning to reach out to rest of the farmers by remitting the money into their account by the end of March.