Katihar, July 10 (HS). A meeting of the district level executive committee related to the Agricultural Equipment Bank Scheme run by the Agriculture Department was organized. District Agriculture Officer cum Project Director of ATMA, Assistant Director of Agricultural Engineering and District Horticulture, Senior Scientist of Krishi Vigyan Kendra and LDM of District Lead Bank were present in the meeting held under the chairmanship of the District Officer.
In the said meeting, various important schemes related to the Agriculture Department such as distribution of agricultural equipment to farmers at subsidized rates, distribution of food and seeds among farmers at subsidized rates, implementation of Agriculture Mechanization Scheme, Custom Hiring Centre, establishment of Agricultural Equipment Bank, incentives to farmers for organic farming in the district etc. and the achievements against the targets achieved under various schemes in the past year were reviewed in detail.
In the meeting, the District Agriculture Officer informed that under the Krishi Bank Scheme of the Agriculture Department, a total of 08 beneficiaries, including 06 from the general category and 02 from the Scheduled Caste / Tribe, will be issued approval letters on the basis of first come first serve, in which the beneficiaries will be provided tractors at subsidized rates along with equipment related to plowing, sowing, harvesting and threshing. Under the said scheme, the beneficiaries purchasing the equipment will be given a maximum grant of Rs. 04 lakhs directly in their bank accounts. The beneficiaries selected for this scheme will be able to improve their livelihood and economic condition by renting out the said equipment. Along with this, the production and productivity of agriculture in the district can also be increased.
In the said sequence, the District Officer directed the concerned officer to prepare a fixed standard for distribution of the said scheme and to select and benefit poor and economically weak farmers of economically backward areas, to provide seeds to the farmers at subsidized rates, to form investigation teams to prevent black marketing of fertilizers and seeds and to regularly raid shops in different areas, to put up information boards containing various types of information including storage and rate of fertilizers and seeds at licensed shops, to do maximum publicity in the areas for availability of food and seeds and to promote organic farming and to prepare an action plan and work to achieve the targets of various schemes in this financial year.