Farmers in Telangana wait with fingers crossed for input assistance

Majority of farmers in Telangana are in for a rude shock finding paltry sums ranging from Re.1 to Rs.100 credited to their accounts as the government-sponsored input assistance for the Rabi season

Hyderabad: Major players in the private debt market are all set to make a comeback cashing in on the unmet credit needs of farmers in the State, as over 70 lakh Rythu Bandhu beneficiaries are waiting with their fingers crossed for the 12th installment of input assistance.

The new government in the State has claimed to have commenced the process for disbursal of payments almost one week ago. But a majority of the farmers were in for a rude shock finding paltry sums ranging from Re.1 to Rs.100 credited to their accounts as the government-sponsored input assistance for the Rabi season.

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For the first time, the message notifications received from the bank are so disappointing, said a tribal farmer owning one acre in Dhanya Tanda village of Mahabubabad district. “This is the time we need some monetary assistance to buy fertilizers and pesticides,” he said.

Some of the farmers have already been making a beeline to traders and moneylenders who purchase chilli from the farmers and supply to the Mannegudem Chilli factory, the largest agro processing unit in the region. Though it is easy and hassle-free to avail such assistance from private credit outlets, it is hard to repay.

Ganesh Badavath, a young farmer from the village, said his father was ready to stretch out his hands for loan assistance from private lenders after five years. Farmers with a holding of two acres and more are used to delayed remittances for the input assistance.

But they were upset with the fact that even those owning less than two acres were also being made to wait for long. Though Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had directed officials to commence the Rythu Bandhu assistance on December 11, the process has in a way remained a non-starter for a majority of the farmers.

Revenue officials said guidelines were being worked out for the implementation of Rythu Bandhu (likely to be renamed as Rythu Bharosa), allotment of unallotted double bedroom houses and supply of LPG refills at Rs.500.

“You need to look at it through the prism of positivity. It takes little more time to unfold such initiatives involving huge outlay,” a top official said.