Over 11.25 farmers register for govt’s relief packages: Sanghavi

“The Chief Minister reviewed the work of the two relief packages in the state cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Due to crop damages due to heavy as well as unseasonal rainfall, two relief packages were announced for the farmers. Till date, more than 10 lakh farmers have registered online to avail the assistance under Rs 10,000 crore package. Against the September heavy rainfall, the state government had announced a relief package of Rs 1,138 crore for five affected districts. Till date, a total of 1.25 lakh farmers have applied online,” Sanghavi said.

Sharing information on the MSP scheme, the minister said over 1.62 lakh metric tonnes of groundnut worth around Rs 1,177 crore have been purchased from more than 70,000 farmers across the state. Also, the process of making payments directly into the bank accounts of farmers has been started, he added.

“This year, more than 9.31 lakh farmers have registered for sale of groundnut – two-and-a-half times more than last year. A decision was taken to purchase groundnut worth Rs 15,000 crore with a limit of 25 quintal per farmer,” Sanghavi added.

Additional power supply

The state government also decided to provide 10 hours of power supply, instead of eight hours, from Thursday to farmers of six districts in view of the ongoing rabi sowing season.  Also, farmers in Garbada and Dahod taluka of Dahod district will get 12 hours of power supply instead of eight hours during the Rabi season from November 20. Around 9,758 farmers from 191 villages of these two talukas are expected to benefit from this decision.

For irrigation of farmers in cumin cultivation areas, the state government announced to provide ten hours of electricity supply in agricultural feeders instead of eight hours from November 20. This is expected to benefit 49,000 farmers from about 1,090 villages. Sanghavi said cumin farmers from Viramgam and Mandal in Ahmedabad, Bechraji in Mehsana, Sami, Harij, Shankheshwar, Radhanpur and Santalpur in Patan, Lakhtar and Dasada in Surendranagar, Suigam and Vav in Vav-Tharad and Halvad taluka in Morbi district will benefit from the decision.