The present scheme aims to stop this pilferage by linking Aadhaar numbers of farmers to the sales as well as making the sales through PoS machines.
With 23,416 point of sales (PoS) machines in place, Maharashtra aims to roll out the Aadhaar-linked sale of fertilizers scheme from this kharif season. This will be the first season, where the state government is implementing the direct benefit transfer scheme for fertilizers — a flagship programme of the central government.
On an average, the country witnesses sale of over 40 lakh tonne of fertilizers during the kharif season, with the government sources estimating that around 20 per cent is diverted to non-agricultural usage. The present scheme aims to stop this pilferage by linking Aadhaar numbers of farmers to the sales as well as making the sales through PoS machines.
Minister of agriculture Pandurang Fudkar had stated that farmers would be sold fertilizers without debit cards, but their Aadhaar numbers would be noted down. Senior officials of the agriculture department said that they had been conducting mapping of input sellers and all such outlets had been given the PoS machines. “Training camps have been conducted for input sellers to make them aware of the changes,” said a senior official of the department.