Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government will provide financial assistance under the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme to landless farmers on February 15.

Informing this today, Agriculture Secretary Saurabh Garg said that Rs 5,000 each will be credited to the bank accounts of around 4.5 lakh landless farmers through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.

Financial assistance of the same amount will be provided to around 14 lakh small and marginal farmers of the state on February 22, he added.

Under the KALIA scheme, financial assistance of Rs 25,000 per farm family over five seasons will be provided to small and marginal farmers so that farmers can purchase inputs like seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and use assistance towards labour and other investments. This scheme is implemented from current Rabi Season 2018-19 onwards.

The scheme covers 92% of the cultivators, sharecroppers and landless agriculture labourers in the State.