GUWAHATI, Dec 7 - In what is being touted as the biggest ever such scheme in the Indian agricultural sector, the State Government will distribute tractors to 26,000 villages and SHGs under the Chief Minister�s Samagra Gramya Unnayan Yojana (CMSGUY).
The programme will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal at a function here on December 10 coinciding with Swahid Divas.
Speaking to reporters here today, Agriculture Minister Atul Bora said that this is the biggest such scheme in the Indian agriculture sector and added that the fact has been acknowledged by the tractor manufacturing firms themselves.
In the first phase, 10,139 tractors will be distributed. The brand of the tractors to be distributed has been decided as per the choice of the farmers of respective villages.
Asked when the entire distribution process would be completed, Bora said, �It will take some time. We have not even received 26,000 applications. Only 25,007 applications have been received so far.�
He said that during the first phase, tractors would be distributed to the 10,139 villages from which only one application each has been received.
Many villages have sent two or more applications, while no applications have been received from 7,025 villages.
Bora said the process for distribution of one lakh shallow tubewells and solar pumps under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) would also be carried out soon.
With regard to crop production, Bora said that the target for paddy production in the 2017-18 crop year has been fixed at 87.42 lakh MT against the production of 83.93 lakh MT last year. He added that armyworms hit crop fields at many places during the harvest period this year and teams of officials were sent to eradicate the problem.
Bora said that the 5th Assam International Agri-Horti Show would be held in Dibrugarh from January 5 to 8 next year.
