Under the state government’s subsidy programme farmers in Bihar will now have to refresh their list of farm implements to purchase as the Bihar state government has delisted as many as 63 equipments for this fiscal.

A senior officer of the agriculture department, familiar with the matter, said that the state government has approved 17 farm implements, against 81 last year, on which farmers would be given subsidy. The officer added, “This year’s farm mechanization drive focuses on waste management to curtail the challenges of stubble or husk burning that often led to a prolonged air pollution in the state.”

The stubble burning has been a major issue that Bihar, apart from Punjab & Haryana has been grappling with for the past few years. The state government has initiated strict action against 900 farmers in the last three months’ post-paddy harvesting season by blocking government incentives and subsidies paid through direct benefit transfer( DBT) for three years in 11 districts.

Bihar is the only state in India where such a system has been put in place since last year, linking government incentives for farmers with compliance to the ban on stubble burning, seen as a major contributor to air pollution.

The officer also said that the huge cut in subsidy was also attributed to the financial strain the state was suffering due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The officer added, “The state plan head size for subsidy on farm mechanization has been reduced to Rs 23.69 crore in 2020-21 against Rs 163 crore in the last fiscal. While the state government is offering subsidy on 17 equipments, the central government is providing subsidy to farmers on 16 other implements under different schemes.”

The state government has already discontinued subsidy on combine-harvester, which left the straw on the field after cropping of wheat. Now, farmers would not be getting the financial support to purchase power tillers, power threshers among others. However, subsidy would continue on purchases of brush cutter, super seeder, happy seeder, self-propelled ripper, straw ripper, straw management system and mini rice and oil mills.

The author is a student member of Amity centre of Happiness