Bihar to Review Agricultural Equipment Subsidy System Following Farmer Feedback

Deputy Chief Minister cum Agriculture Minister Shri Vijay Kumar Sinha said that the process of subsidy payment under the Agricultural Mechanization Scheme will be reviewed and necessary amendments will be made. During the direct dialogue with farmers on the occasion of Kisan Kalyan Samvad and Yuva Kisan Samman Samaroh organized in Sitamarhi and Buxar, farmers shared suggestions and problems related to the policies of various schemes run by the Agriculture Department, on which the Deputy Chief Minister assured to consider seriously.

The agricultural equipment sellers present in the program requested that the subsidy on the purchase of agricultural equipment should be paid directly to the sellers instead of the manufacturer at present. The sellers said that this will make the process more simple and quick and farmers will be able to get the equipment easily. On this, the Deputy Chief Minister said that this demand will be considered at the departmental level and after review, necessary amendments will be made so that farmers do not face any difficulty at any level.

The Deputy Chief Minister said that till the financial year 2015-16, subsidy was paid directly to the sellers under the Agricultural Mechanization Scheme. After this, from the financial year 2016-17 to 2019-20, the subsidy amount started being paid directly into the bank accounts of the farmers. Then from the financial year 2020-21, a system was implemented to purchase the machinery by deducting the subsidy amount and paying only the farmer's share, in which after verification, the remaining subsidy amount is paid to the manufacturer. The purpose of all these processes is to provide transparent and simple facilities to the farmers.