Keonjhar: Cashew farming is being promoted through Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to create scope of earning for people and enhance the income of interested farmers, but the initiative has allegedly been mired in irregularities in Keonjhar. The scheme has failed to achieve its objectives for the beneficiaries.
As per guidelines, cashew saplings are planted on the land of the beneficiaries under MGNREGS. The saplings are taken care of and maintained for two years before the plantations are handed over to beneficiaries. Here is a case in point: In 2021- 22 fiscal, the horticulture department planted cashew saplings on 8 hectares of land belonging to 12 beneficiaries at Sendakap village under Sadar block. Around Rs 19 lakh was spent for the project.
Scores of job card holders were engaged in raising the plants and fencing. However, it was alleged that post-plantation care was not taken up properly. Pesticides and fertilizers were not used to nurture the saplings. And as a result, saplings died off. Some saplings that had survived were eaten up by goats and cattle in absence of fences. With no sapling surviving, the plantation area now resembles pasture land. Beneficiaries who had nurtured hope of earning from cashew farming were a distressed lot. Locals said that they used to raise crops from their farmlands earlier, but after the cashew plantation, the farmlands are unfit for farming. They blamed some officials of the horticulture department for the mess.
“Some officials came to us and persuaded us to take up cashew plantation on our land for good income generation. They said they would maintain the plantation for three years and hand over fully grown trees to us only after those were ready for bearing fruits. Rs 5.5 lakh was spent. But maintenance funds were not released later,” some farmers alleged. Later, as saplings did not survive, the horticulture department wrote to the DRDA not to release funds for maintenance. Block overseer Prithviraj Mohant said that the work related to cashew farming has been stopped while top officials of the horticulture department were informed about it in December, 2021. Deputy Director of horticulture, Jayant Kumar Nayak said that he can comment on the issue only after checking the related file.