Blame it on the negligence and apathy of Manohar Lal Khattar Government or farmers’ ignorance, the introduction of online registration portal has been found to create hurdles, barring a majority of farmers in Haryana from availing the benefits of agricultural schemes.
This has been revealed in a recent study undertaken by Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Centre (CRRID) to evaluate success of diversification of agricultural crops in Haryana.
The farmers in Haryana have claimed that they were uninformed and technologically unequipped to register themselves to avail benefits under the crop diversification schemes, the report said.
“The physical targets achieved under crop diversification programme’s (CDP) component of cluster demonstration fell from 68 percent in 2015-16 to 9 percent in 2016-16. During 2015-16, the physical targets were effectively achieved as the extension officers directly distributed seed and fertilizer kits at the village level. However, in 2016-17, due to the introduction of online system, the farmers could not fill or submit the applications due to lack of technical understanding, awareness and other technical issues,” pointed out the study, which is carried out in six districts chosen to evaluate success of diversification of agricultural crops in the state.
These districts included Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Fatehabad, Kaithal, Sirsa and Sonipat. In order to motivate the farmers to grow maize under CDP, the State Government had announced to allocate hybrid maize seeds worth Rs 2000-8000 to individual farmers in the state for the period 2016-17. And, the money (free of cost seeds) had been distributed through online direct benefit transfer (DBT) among farmers on the basis of individual land holdings in Haryana.
Last year, the senior officials in Haryana Agriculture Department had also expressed reservations about the government’s decision to transfer the amount for purchasing seeds directly to the account of the farmers under DBT system.
Pointing loopholes in the DBT system, the CRRID report stated, “Most of the farmers are illiterate and do not have access to internet facilities thus barring them from getting registered online at least in the initial years. While farmers have shown enthusiasm on the introduction of online registration portal, they found it cumbersome and prone to corruption while others thought that the online system would help in tapping fake registrations.”
It also said, “The officials expressed their helplessness in case of ‘multiple registrations’ by members of a single household. Over-crowding of online portal also restricted the subsidy benefits to limited users on a first-come-first basis.”
It was also observed and also, corroborated by the agriculture extension officers that farmers prefer ‘in-hand’ money or benefits as it was practiced earlier than waiting for months to be reimbursed their investments on farm inputs. In some cases, the computer operators at ‘form filling center’ (private cyber cafes) have indulged in illicit activities to earn some extra money.
The report also mentioned proactive teamwork showcased by the officials and extension workers in some districts including Sirsa district which achieved 49.5 percent targets in crop demonstration component against the state average of six percent during CDP 2016-17.
On the other hand, the government’s action plan document does not record positive performance of maize demonstration in 2016-17 largely due to introduction of online registration system. Across the districts, most of the famers are not computer literate and their hesitation to provide basic information about the land holdings also resulted in the minimal achievement of targets, it added.
To make the cumbersome online process smooth, the report has suggested a mechanism to deter multiple registrations by members of a single household, inspection to weed out ineligible or fake claimants, computer sets alongwith internet facility for agriculture extension officers and the online registration should not be closed unlike the present system where it stops registering after crossing ten percent over the target area.
The CDP was launched during 2013-14 in Haryana to replace paddy with maize and other alternative crops. The four major components of the CDP included alternate crops demonstrations, farm mechanization and value addition, site specific activities, and contingency for awareness training, implementation and monitoring.
However, the efforts towards crop diversification have yielded little results so far in Haryana due to poor procurement, low MSP of non paddy-wheat crops and other factors.On the component of providing subsidy on farm implements under CDP, the report revealed that only 29 percent of financial target have been achieved in Haryana in 2016-17.
Mechanisation of farming has been sought to solve the ongoing labour crisis, enhance work efficiency and also, function to tackle the stubble burning in Haryana. Field survey revealed that majority of the marginal and small farmers have abstained from availing the subsidy on farm implements due to huge investments required for purchase and their maintenance round the year, stated the report while suggesting that instead of promoting purchase of implements, the government should create ‘implements banks’ at block or village levels as an alternative option for hiring of such equipments by the farmers.