“It’s an end-to-end scheme wherein the scheme operators will be involved right from capacity-building of farmers to the marketing stage, and will themselves be one of the beneficiaries of the scheme. Till now, we only have Government as a one-off agency that could intervene. That would lead to problems of convergence of various departments concerned for implementation of the various schemes,” Principal Secretary (Co-operatives) Sudhir Kumar Goel, who had floated the idea, told The Indian Express.

The project envisages the creation of 4,800 Self Help Groups (SHGs) for farmers and 15,000 for women in 120 clusters. Each cluster will have ten villages, effectively covering 349,800 households in 1,200 villages.

Depending on the local conditions, plans will be made and operated for capacity-building, production increase and profitable marketing of the local produce like cotton, oranges, etc. They will include allied projects like animal husbandry, dairy and fishery.

The project envisages an increase in the average farm income of the households from Rs 12,610 to Rs 21,045 per annum mainly through

improved farm practices, better land management techniques and lowering the production cost. One of the major components of the project will be in-situ water conservation and about Rs 200 crore will be spent on that.

“The private sector and NGOs will ensure the project’s sustenance since they will be responsible not only for marketing but also capacity-building and production. It will be unlike the present scenario when the private traders or firms only buy on contract and are not concerned whether the farmer benefits,” Goel added.

... contd.