Mumbai: For three months starting September, all Maharashtra government officials involved in implementing policies impacting agriculture and farmers will have to spend time ranging from a day to three days each month, with farmers on their fields.
The Maharashtra government project is aimed at understand the causes of agrarian distress, and particularly why farmers are compelled to commit suicide, especially in the districts of Vidarbha and Marathwada.
“Officials connected with the sector across all levels and geographies will spend a day with farmers from different parts of the state. They will stay with the farmer from the morning to the night, understanding the farmer’s daily routine. They will try to understand the day-to-day difficulties that farmers face,” state agriculture minister Abdul Sattar, an MLA from the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction, said in the Maharashtra legislative assembly Thursday.
The initiative, titled Majha Ek Divas Majhya Baliraja Sathi (My one day for my farmer), will begin on 1 September and run for three months. At the end of the three months, experts from agriculture universities will help the regional officers and government employees prepare an exhaustive report of all the findings.
“We will also take suggestions and remarks from experts in the field of agriculture. Based on these findings, we will draft a comprehensive agriculture policy under the guidance of the chief minister and deputy chief minister,” Sattar said.
According to a circular issued by the state agriculture department Thursday, the initiative spans across the departments of agriculture, rural development and revenue, and requires officials such as principal secretary of the agriculture department, agriculture commissioner, director, the chancellor and heads of departments of the state agriculture university, divisional commissioner and district level officials right till the tehsildar to spend time with farmers in the state.
ThePrint has a copy of the circular.
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Agriculture department officials to spend more time with farmers
The circular added that officials and employees from the state agriculture department will have to spend at least three days in a month with farmers, while those from the other two departments will be expected to spend at least one day in a month with farmers.
Officials have been asked to pick areas that are under-developmend, rain-fed, hilly, or inaccessible and also choose farmers who are dependent on rain-fed farming. The village chosen for the visit should also be far from the office headquarters of the concerned official, said the circular.
Officials are expected to do some homework before they leave for the visit. They will have to make a list of all government, non-government, semi-government organisations, banks in the village, various cooperative societies and dairies and visit these to understand how they help farmers in the village, the circular added.
They will be required to speak to farmers off the record to understand their hindrances, their production, expenditure, understand whether there is any crop diversification in the village and make suggestions. Officials will also have to do a recce of what technologies farmers rely on.
According to the circular, officials will also have to brief farmers on the government’s social welfare schemes available to them such as crop insurance, accident insurance and so on, and understand their overall economics.
Officials from the agriculture department and agriculture universities have also been asked to hold meetings in villages to informing farmers about modern crop-specific technologies as well as visit farmers, production companies and self-help groups that have had success stories.
All officials will have to submit their report to the district collector, the circular said.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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