The state agriculture department has also begun efforts to roll out a Rs 2,000 crore farm loan waiver scheme, among the key announcements in the Jharkhand Budget presented by the Hemant Soren government soon after coming to power seven months ago.

On Thursday afternoon, state agriculture minister Badal Patralekh held a meeting with officials to work out details of the scheme expected to benefit around 5 lakh small and marginal farmers.

Agriculture secretary Abu Bakr Siddique said the meeting was aimed at chalking out modalities of the loan waiver plan. “Today’s meet was the first in line with the government’s vision to implement the scheme. It will take some time before a formal roll out is possible as we want to ensure everything is fool- proof before implementation,” he said.

The agriculture secretary ruled out the possibility of a formal announcement on the scheme’s rollout at this year’s Independence Day programme.

Earlier, Patralekh flagged off a consignment of over 1 tonne vegetables for Dubai, a first of its kind initiative undertaken by the state government to send locally cultivated horticultural produce to overseas markets.

The consignment comprising close to a dozen varieties of green vegetables was sent to Calcutta via road. From there it is expected to be sent to Dubai by air cargo.

Secretary of Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC), Ranchi division, Abhishek Anand said they had tied up with All Seasons Farm Fresh, a private agency with offices in Jamshedpur and Mumbai, for this initiative.

“Vegetables which were sent today (Thursday) included 300kg bitter gourd, 50kg ladies finger, 150kg bottle gourd, 50kg French beans, 100 kg coccinia grandis (kundru), 100kg long beans, among others. After procuring directly from farmers, we packaged them for overseas market,” he said.

Anand said they were planning to export a similar consignment to Singapore next month, modalities for which were being worked out.

Minister Patralekh said his department was also working out an export policy for agricultural produce which would be launched in the next few months. “Providing the right price and market to farmers is one of our election promises,” he said.