The government will consider giving more licences this year for <g data-gr-id="11">cultivation</g> of opium poppy to farmers with <g data-gr-id="12">track</g> record, Finance Ministry said on Monday.
The ministry notified the general conditions for grant of licence for <g data-gr-id="18">cultivation</g> of opium poppy in the crop year 2015-16. Opium poppy crop year begins on October 1 and ends on September 30 every year. It fixed the average yield of opium during the crop year 2014-15 at 56 kg per hectare for cultivators in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and an average yield of opium of not less than 52 kg per hectare for Uttar Pradesh, an official statement said. “The central government would consider issue of more licences to farmers this year with good performance in the past in light of proposed augmentation of capacity of the Government Opium and Alkaloid Works, adequate demand of opium for domestic and export purposes,” it said.
<g data-gr-id="52">These</g> however, would be conditioned upon farmers concerned having satisfied minimum yield and other conditions of the licensing policy of the relevant year. “Such licenses, as and when issued, would be through an objective and transparent policy keeping in mind the interests of all the stakeholders,” the statement added.