HISAR: The Agriculture Department has found applications of over 1,000 farmers claiming the incentive for adoption of direct seeding of rice (DSR) technique on 11,500 acres in Hisar district fake. Consequently, it has rejected the claims to the tune of Rs 4.60 crore.
With an aim to conserve water, the state government gives an incentive of Rs 4,000 an acre to any farmer who adopts the DSR technique for paddy cultivation.
The Agriculture Department has received applications from farmers claiming direct sowing of paddy on 29,000 acres in Hisar district for the last kharif season. Hisar has a total area of 1.90 lakh acres under paddy and the state government set a minimum target of DSR technique on 8,000 acres in the district.
Sources said in response to the applications, the department had got the physical verification of the DSR area done with the help of agricultural officials, patwaris and village numberdars in the district.
During verification, it was found that claims of over 1,000 farmers on 11,500 acres were not true. As per the applications received by the department, the total area under DSR is 29,000 acres. “Farmers even submitted the applications to claim incentives for the fields where paddy was sown by transplantation,” an official said.
The official said the department was re-verifying the applications for the remaining 17,500 acres with the help of data from the Haryana Space Applications Centre, which could help it establish whether the paddy in a particular field was sown by DSR method or not.
The state government has set a target to bring two lakh acres under DSR in paddy-growing districts of Hisar, Jind, Kaithal, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Fatehabad, Sirsa, Hisar, Rohtak, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Panipat, Sonepat, etc.
Deputy Director of Agriculture, Hisar, Dr Rajbir Singh said they had been releasing the incentive to farmers after a through verification of their application. The unverified applications would be rejected, he added.