Ganesh Dhamodkar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Cropped.
Farmers in 12 Madhya Pradesh districts that received below normal rain are still waiting to learn what relief they will get, even as Chief Minister Mohan Yadav points to milk production as the state's answer to the dry spell.
Speaking to journalists in Bhopal on Saturday, Yadav said farming depends on nature but a farmer can be linked to other self employment. He said Madhya Pradesh is third in the country in milk production and the government has begun setting up milk cooperative societies in village panchayats. No district has been declared drought hit, and farmers in the 12 districts have begun demanding a relief package, the Free Press Journal reported.
The districts are Indore, Ujjain, Alirajpur, Dhar, Ratlam, Jhabua, Shajapur, Harda, Narmadapuram, Betul, Pandhurna and Chhindwara. On October 15, the Chief Minister asked officials to discourage wheat sowing there and promote crops that need less water. On November 4, he ordered crop loss surveys in 12 districts once the anawari yield estimates are available, with relief for eligible farmers under existing schemes.
On Monday, the state's Govardhan Puja programme at Ravindra Bhavan in Bhopal is set to put cattle at the centre. The government plans to release ₹65 crore to more than 3,000 registered gaushalas for September upkeep of about 5.51 lakh cattle, and to give ₹1 lakh, ₹50,000 and ₹25,000 to cattle owners whose cows recorded the highest milk yield in contests held in 208 villages.
Those payments support shelters and dairy, not lost crops. For farmers in the dry districts, the next marker is the anawari count, which will decide who qualifies for crop loss relief.
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