Bihar’s Crop Assistance Scheme: Minister Directs Immediate Payments to Eligible Farmers

In the departmental review, the Honorable Minister of Cooperative Department, Dr. Prem Kumar, directed the departmental officials to make immediate payment of the assistance amount to the farmers found eligible for the estimability of crop assistance under the Rabi (2022–23) season.

The Honorable Minister said that this is an ambitious scheme of the Government of Bihar, under which crop assistance of farmers is done by the state government and it reduces the loss of crops of farmers during natural disasters. The Honorable Minister also directed to comply with this scheme in the right manner and on time.

The verification process is going on for the estimability of crop assistance on the basis of yield rate data in the Rabi 2022–23 season. Till now, the process of payment of assistance amounts to a total of 103896 farmers is going on against the application of a total of 274517 farmers recommended by the District Level Coordination Committee (DLCC). The eligible applicants for the Kharif 2023 season are also being verified by the District Level Coordination Committee (DLCC).

Mapping of Panchayats is being done by the District Level Coordination Committee for verification of eligible applicant farmers of 1218 Gram Panchayats on the basis of yield rate data from the Directorate of Economics and Statistics for the notified crops in the Rabi season 2023-24. Verification action will be taken soon for this season. Applications have been received from 959502 farmers for the Kharif 2024 season under the Bihar State Crop Assistance Scheme.

The state government has implemented the "Bihar State Crop Assistance Scheme" from the Kharif-2018 season. The main objective of this scheme is to provide financial assistance to farmers in the event of a decline in crop production, to encourage them to produce the next crop, to maintain continuity in the income of farmers in adverse conditions, and to develop agriculture as a profitable business in the state by ensuring an increase in the income of farmers. Farmers do not have to pay any kind of fee / premium to apply under the scheme.

On the basis of crop harvesting experiment-based yield rate data edited under the direction of the Directorate of Economics and Statistics Bihar, Patna, after field verification of applicant farmers of such Gram Panchayat/notified area where loss in the yield rate of notified crop is reported, verification of data, and Aadhaar authentication, the estimated assistance amount is paid to the beneficiary farmers directly in their Aadhaar linked bank account through DBT.

In case of decline in actual yield rate by 20% compared to threshold yield rate, Rs 7,500 The assistance amount is admissible at the rate of Rs. 15,000 per hectare up to a maximum of two (02) hectares. In case the actual yield rate falls by more than 20% compared to the threshold yield rate, the assistance amount is admissible at the rate of Rs. 10,000 per hectare up to a maximum of two (02) hectares, up to a total of Rs. 20,000.