Buoyed with the forecast made by Meteorological department that monsoon this time will remain normal and favourable for the farmers, State Agriculture department has arranged 3 lakh metric tonnes of paddy seeds to be made available to the peasants. State Agriculture Director in-charge Rajiv Kumar said that a target has also been fixed to start farming on 2 lakh hectares of unused paddy fields to be done by promoting community farming among the villagers.
“There will be no dearth of seeds to the farmers this time as against the consumption of 1 to 1.25 lakh tonnes of consumption last year, 3 lakh tonnes of seeds have been arranged from 516 seed villages all over the State,” said Kumar. It will also be available in lAMPS and PACS with prescribed subsidies as per the provisions of the State Government, he added.
The Director further said that the State Government has set a target of doing additional farming on two lakh hectares of unused paddy fields, dumped by the owners of those filed due to lack of manpower or dearth of money to purchase seeds.
“It will be done completely by the villagers themselves through community farming for which the Government will provide resources like seeds or tractors for the purpose,” said Kumar. Seeds will be distributed among the villages or Panchayats from May 15 to June 15 after identifying them, he added.
“Rs 2400 per hectare of unused land will be made available to the villagers for farming on it thorough community farming,” Kumar said.
last year farming was done on around 1-1.5 lakh hectares of unused land in the State. Paddy farming on a total of 26 lakh hectares of land is done in the State, he added.
Besides that, farmers will also be motivated for multiple cropping as Jharkhand could also be developed as a pulse producing state.
“We also need to promote pulse farming along with paddy farming in the state as there is a great potential in this state to become a pulse producing state,” said Kumar. Planning is also being done to organize ‘Med-bandi Mahotsava’ on the lines of ‘Matasya Mahotsav’ in villages, he added.
Agriculture experts, predicting good monsoon, also expect good produce this year.
“As all parameters are favorable for a good monsoon, light rain is expected from July this year following which farmers could start ploughing their fields,” said Agro-Met Advisor at Birsa Agriculture University A Wadood. Monsoon is expected from July 10 – 12 in the State, he added.
