BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Wednesday directed the blocklevel technical team to ensure smooth delivery of agricultural inputs and short term loan to farmers for kharif crops. The team comprising officials of Agriculture, Cooperation, Horticulture and Soil Conservation will meet twice, first and third Saturday of every month, to address the problems of the farmers in this regard.
This was decided at a high-level coordination committee meeting attended by Cooperation Minister R P Swain and Agriculture Minister Arun Sahoo.
“It was emphasised to provide quality seeds, fertilizers, crop loan and other agri-inputs to the farmers during kharif in order to ensure food security in the wake of Covid-19 situation,” Sahoo said.
The meeting also stressed on formation of more joint liability groups (JLGs) to provide jobs to migrant returnees. The ministers directed the secretaries of the two departments to ensure that at least 10 per cent of the total crop loan is disbursed among new farmers of the JLGs. The Government has set an ambitious target to disburse crop loan of `9,000 crore, which is `1,500 crore more than the last year’s target.