Vijayawada: Tenant farmers in Andhra Pradesh will also get assistance of Rs 10,000 along with land-owning farmers in a new scheme, ‘Annadata Sukhibhava’, that was cleared by the state Cabinet on Wednesday.
While it is modelled on the Rythu Bandhu of the TRS government, which gives the assistance to all land-owning farmers, and the PM-Kisan of the Centre, which caps the land holding at 5 acres, the AP scheme follows the one offered by Odisha in covering tenant farmers as well.
There is no cap on the land-holding in the AP scheme. Input cost will be paid in two equal instalments during Kharif and Rabi. The first instalment will be given in the February last week.
The state government had allocated Rs 5,000 crore for the scheme in the Budget last week. Of the Rs 10,000 being offered, Rs 6,000 comes from the PM-Kisan scheme for landed farmers, and Rs 4,000 from the state government. The AP government will bear the entire cost of the scheme for tenant farmers.
Minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy said after the Cabinet meeting that the AP scheme would benefit about 76.21 lakh farmers, who would be paid Rs 7,621 crore. n Another report
