The state government will roll out a farmers’ relief scheme, modalities for which are being fine-tuned, with an initial budgetary allocation of Rs 100 crore, agriculture minister Badal Patralesh has said.

On Thursday, the minister held extensive discussions with deputy commissioners and other officials of all 24 districts over video hook-up ahead of the monsoon, expected to enter Jharkhand later this week.

The nationwide lockdown triggered due to the coronavirus pandemic has pushed farmers in distress with reports of produce and crop losses due to a lack of a marketplace and untimely rains. The large influx of migrants has only added to their woes as the state is now confronted with issues of providing food and livelihood.

The minister said agriculture was one of the priority sectors identified by the state government which can help reboot the sluggish economy. “The state government is going to launch a farmers’ relief scheme soon with a sanctioned budget of Rs 100 crore. The amount will be increased if needed. We are also in the process of formulating an agricultural policy,” he said.

Sources said that relief scheme will deal with providing liquidity as well as required resources to help farmers tide over the crisis in view of the coming kharif season. Also, the focus will be to engage migrants in different sectors of agriculture and allied activities for creating employment opportunities.

Patralesh said, “All districts have been asked to link migrants with panchayat level cooperative societies so that they can get employment at their doorsteps. All DCs have been asked to work in mission mode to carry out the plans of the government to uplift farmers and migrant laborers by providing them employment.”

He also directed officials to start distributing seeds to farmers on a war footing in the next three days in all the districts.

Of the over 38 lakh farmers of Jharkhand, agriculture department data suggest that barely 50 per cent of them have kisan credit cards (KCC). More worrying is that farmers often don’t receive crop insurances on time. Department records highlight that in the last three years, the government had paid a premium of Rs 477 crore to insurance companies for crop insurance, but only Rs 77 crore was handed out as compensation to farmers.

Patralesh, who did not deny these realities, said the state government has decided to facilitate farm loans to KCC card holders. “This is an issue and we have asked districts to send status reports of those who haven’t received compensation for their crop losses. Meanwhile, we have decided to facilitate bank loans of up to Rs 3 lakh to dairy farmers and Rs 1.6 lakh to others without any guarantee. All DCs have been directed to immediately hold meetings with banks to facilitate tis,” he said.