The Chief Minister's Office of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, 23 June 2026, announced an expansion of the Krishak Unnati Yojana, extending per-acre input support to farmers who shift away from paddy cultivation to alternative crops including pulses, oilseeds, maize, millets, and cotton.

Context

The official post states: 'किसानों की समृद्धि सुशासन सरकार की प्राथमिकता' ('Farmer prosperity is the priority of good-governance government'). Under the expanded scheme, farmers cultivating pulses (dal), oilseeds (til), maize (makka), kodo millet, kutki, ragi, and cotton in place of paddy will now receive ₹15,000 per acre as input assistance. The announcement signals a formal policy push toward crop diversification in the state's kharif season.

Policy Backdrop

Chhattisgarh is one of India's significant rice-producing states, where paddy monoculture has long strained groundwater reserves and limited soil health. The Krishak Unnati Yojana was designed to address this by offering crop-specific financial incentives, building on the model established by the Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana launched in 2020, which provided income and input support to farmers and set the template for direct per-acre assistance in the state. The current expansion broadens the eligible crop basket significantly, adding coarse cereals and cotton alongside the earlier categories. This move aligns with a wider national policy direction of reducing water-intensive paddy acreage in favour of pulses, oilseeds, and millets — crops that demand less irrigation, improve soil nitrogen, and contribute to nutritional security. Several rice-belt states across India have introduced similar diversification incentives under both central and state-level programmes aimed at building climate resilience in agriculture.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries are Chhattisgarh's paddy farmers who choose to diversify their cropping pattern in the current kharif cycle. Pulse and millet growers who were previously outside the scheme's ambit will now be eligible for the ₹15,000 per acre support. The inclusion of kodo, kutki, and ragi — traditional coarse grains cultivated in the state's tribal and hilly belts — is particularly significant for smallholder and tribal farming communities who have historically grown these crops but lacked formal income-support access. Cotton farmers, operating in a cash-crop segment with high input costs, also stand to benefit from the added cushion. Crop diversification at scale, if achieved, could reduce pressure on irrigation infrastructure and improve long-term soil productivity across the state.

What's Next

Key indicators to watch will be kharif 2026 sowing data from Chhattisgarh, which will reveal whether farmers respond to the ₹15,000 incentive by shifting acreage away from paddy. The timely disbursement of the input assistance to enrolled farmers will be critical to the scheme's credibility and uptake. The government's ability to register eligible farmers, verify crop choices, and release funds before the sowing window closes will determine whether this policy intent translates into measurable diversification on the ground.