Bhubaneswar: The Odisha cabinet on Friday approved the ‘Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation’ (KALIA) scheme amounting to over Rs 10,000 crore for farmers.
All small and marginal farmers of the state will be covered under this scheme.
Under the KALIA scheme, an amount of Rs 10,000 per family at the rate of Rs 5,000 each for Kharif and Rabi seasons shall be provided as financial assistance for taking up cultivation.
This assistance is for five cropping seasons spanning three years from 2018-19 to 2021-22.
Happy to launch historic ₹10,000 crore “Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation”- #KALIA to further accelerate agricultural prosperity in #Odisha. It will cover over 30 lakh small & marginal farmers, benefiting 92% of the cultivators#OdishaEmpowersFarmers
— Naveen Patnaik (@Naveen_Odisha) December 21, 2018
KALIA scheme has 5 interventions including support to cultivators, livelihood support for landless, financial assistance to vulnerable agriculture households and landless labourers, life insurance cover, interest free crop loan up to Rs 50,000.
The KALIA scheme has five interventions:
(1) Support to cultivators for cultivation: All the small and marginal farmers of the State (over 30 lakh) will be covered under this scheme. An amount of Rs 10,000 per family @ Rs 5,000 each for Kharif and Rabi seasons shall be provided as financial assistance for taking up cultivation. Farmers will have complete independence to take up interventions as per their needs. This will cover 92% of the cultivators of the State.
This component is not linked to the extent of land owned. Thus, it is progressive in nature. It will greatly benefit share croppers/ actual cultivators most of whom own very small extents of land.
Further this assistance is for 5 cropping seasons spanning three years from 2018-19 to 2021-22, so as to ensure comprehensive coverage.
(2) Livelihood Support for Landless Households: Most of the schemes on agriculture bypass landless agriculture households. Under this initiative, 10 lakh landless households will be supported with a unit cost of Rs12,500 to take up activities like small goat rearing units, mini layer units, duckery units, fishery kits for fishermen & women, mushroom cultivation and bee keeping.
The landless households will have the option of selecting any of the units. Among others, this will particularly benefit Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe households. An amount of Rs. 1250 crores will be utilised in 3 years.
(3) Financial Assistance to Vulnerable Agriculture Households and Landless Labourers: Sometimes, farmers may not be able to take up cultivation and some of the agicultural labourers may not be able to avail livelihood options due to old age, disability, disease or other reasons. An annual financial assistance of Rs 10,000 per household will be provided to take care of their sustenance.
Deserving families will be identified and selected by Gram Panchayats. About 10 lakh households will be covered over 2 years under this scheme at a cost of Rs 1000 crores.
(4) Life Insurance Cover: Life Insurance cover of Rs 2 Lakhs and additional Personal Accident cover of Rs 2 lakhs will be provided to both cultivators & landless agricultural labourers covering about 57 lakh households.
(5) Crop Loans up to Rs 50,000 will henceforth be interest free: Under KALIA an amount of Rs 10,180 crores will be spent over a period of 3 years till 2020-21. The scheme will be reviewed in 2020-21 for further modifications.