Tackling flood damage: Punjab farmers with less than 5 acres to get free wheat seeds from October 13

The Punjab Government will start providing free wheat seeds to flood-hit farmers owning less than 5 acres from October 13. The government also rescheduled the repayment of short-term loans taken by such farmers for the kharif crop this year.

Instead of January 31 next year, they can now repay the loan till June 30.

The flood-hit farmers will also be eligible to apply for fresh loans, irrespective of the pendency of their kharif crop loan. The government has kept Rs 1,342 crore for disbursal as the rabi season loan.

The moves come even as the government is awaiting central aid of Rs 1,600 crore, which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to flood-affected state areas last month.

SOPs issued

Issuing standard operating procedures (SOPs), the government said flood-hit farmers owning less than five acres would start getting free wheat seeds from offices of the state Agriculture Department. Punjab State Seeds Corporation Limited (PUNSEED) has been appointed as the nodal agency for the distribution of free seeds for 1.85 lakh hectares.

The seed distribution will be done after affected farmers register themselves on the department portal (www.agrimachinerypb.com) and uploaded the farad (land ownership details) and identity cards. “These applications will be verified quickly, and once done, farmers can get the free wheat seeds. A price of Rs 4,000 per quintal has been fixed for the certified and PAU-recommended seeds, being procured by PUNSEED. For this initiative, the Centre has given Rs 44.40 crore under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), while Rs 29.60 crore has been chipped in by the state government,” said a department official.

“The beneficiaries should figure in the list of flood-hit farmers prepared by the DCs concerned and over 33 per cent of their kharif crop (paddy, cotton, maize or sugarcane) should have been damaged in the floods,” he added.

Other than this, 60.871 quintals of subsidised wheat seeds will be distributed among farmers in other parts of the state. Since most farmers associated with Punjab State Cooperative Bank and District Cooperative Central Bank are small and marginal farmers, the government has decided to extend loan repayment of flood-hit farmers up to June 30.