Kathmandu. Of the total Rs 13.76 billion that 68,000 sugarcane farmers are due from 13 sugar mills in the current fiscal year, around 92 per cent of the amount has been paid, the government said.

At a news conference organized on the occasion of 100 days of the formation of the present government, government Spokesperson and Minister for Education and Sports Sasmit Pokharel shared that in the past years, the sugarcane farmers had to wait for six to eight months for payment but effective arrangement has been made to release the amount within this fiscal year.

According to him, around Rs 1.52 billion subsidy at the rate of Rs 70 per quintal from the government will be released to the concerned bodies and deposited in the farmers’ accounts by July 9. According to the 100 days achievement report released by the government, arrangements have been made for immediate payment to some farmers who have been stuck due to lack of technical details like bank account and PAN.

Budget has been allocated for the operation of Agriculture Market Information System and Cooling Center. Soil health cards have been distributed to farmers and soil testing has been initiated. In order to promote investment in the agriculture sector, the risk burden on agricultural loans up to Rs 30 million has been reduced from 75 percent to 60 percent.

Of the total 25,58,198 farmers across the country, 750,000 have been verified so far. The committee has been actively distributing relief to the affected families to reduce human-wildlife conflict as well as carrying out a study on the matter.