HDk to roll out cluster farming

BENGALURU: After his big-ticket farm loan waiver announcement in the last budget, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy is set to roll out yet another major initiative focused on the farm sector. To help farmers with small land holdings by providing assistance to reduce input costs and raise income, the coalition government is coming up with a cluster farming or cooperative farming scheme.

Unlike the `48,000-crore farm loan waiver, cluster farming will not require huge financial allocation from the state government, and the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), a central government institution, has come forward to provide financial assistance to farmers’ cooperatives.

“The NCDC has agreed to provide up to `2 crore to each cluster,” Cooperation Minister Bandeppa Kashempur told The New Indian Express on Friday. “We have proposed cooperative farming or cluster farming during our meeting with the CM to discuss budget proposals.We have given a proposal to form 500 clusters across the state on a pilot basis,” he said. Under the scheme, small clusters of 50 to 60 farmers with total land holdings of around 200 to 300 acres will be formed.

Once the clusters are registered under the Cooperatives Act, various government departments and experts from agricultural universities will provide the assistance required.  The cooperation department will be the nodal agency for implementing the scheme, and will also provide financial assistance to purchase tractors or other farm equipment, and agriculture inputs like seeds and fertilisers so that it brings down the cost of farming for individual farmers.

“The CM is thinking of bringing in many reforms, and we discussed many such proposals at a meeting to discuss budget proposals,” the minister said.

Cooperative farming or cluster farming is a good idea as small farmers with very small land holdings constitute an overwhelming segment of the farm sector,” said Dr KM Jayaramaiah, former professor and head of department of Agriculture Extension, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru.

“The government has to make sure that politics is kept out of such clusters and strive to form homogeneous groups of farmers so that farmers with small land holdings can benefit from the scheme,” he added.

FARM LOAN WAIVER
Kashempur said the state is committed to the farm loan waiver and there was no need for any confusion among farmers. “The system is being streamlined and there is no shortage of funds. As far as cooperatives are concerned, `9,448 crore will be cleared by July 10.”

BADAVARA BANDHU
To overcome implementation issues in the Badavara Bandhu scheme to give financial assistance to small vendors, the cooperation department has directed banks not to insist on identity card issued by the corporation, or the BPL card. “8,000 small vendors have benefited from the scheme, and more will be covered by February 15,” he said.