There is poor registration by farmers in Dakshina Kannada for direct income support from the Union government under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) programme.
The programme, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, had 1,898 farmer registered under it in the district till Saturday, against the target of 15,839 for the current financial year, according to an official from the Department of Agriculture.
Farmers with cultivable land of up to 2 hectares (5 acres) are eligible to apply. Only one farmer member of a family will get the income support, of ₹6,000 a year in three equal instalments of ₹2,000. If many members of a family hold rights over the farming land, the member who applies for income support will have to produce a no-objection document signed by the other members, the official said. According to him, this is the main reason not many registrations have happened in the district.
On the other hand, there are many absentee landlords in the district, the official told The Hindu on the sidelines of a programme organised to view the live telecast of the launch at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK).
Speaking at the programme, D. Vedavyasa Kamath, MLA for Mangaluru City South, said that though India is the second-most populous country in the world, it has to import some agriculture commodities from abroad. People giving up agriculture for various reasons and shrinking farmlands have forced the country to import some agricultural commodities, he said.
Citing the example of cashew nut, he said that earlier cashew nut processors imported the nut for only about eight months a year. Now, they are forced to import them for about 10 months. The availability of domestically grown cashew nuts has reduced, indicating a reduction in domestic production, he said.
A.T. Ramachandra Naika, head of KVK and scientist, also spoke on the occasion.