While paddy forms as Chhattisgarh’s biggest crop basket, the area under corn cultivation in the hilly tracts of the State has gone up considerably, inform officials.
The rising corn output from the hilly regions could be witnessed in Balrampur-Ramanujganj district of Surguja Revenue Division where a large number of farmers have been taking interest in corn cultivation in Baghima, Parsa and many other villages of Rajpur block of the district, they stated.
Notably, the hilly regions offer favourable condition for corn cultivation. However, paddy cultivation is not possible in such areas and keeping this in view, Chief Minister Raman Singh had earlier directed the Agriculture Department to take every possible step to encourage corn cultivation in such areas.
Complying with the directives, the Agriculture Department chalked out a proper action plan for such hilly areas, implementation of which has led to the increased area under corn cultivation in the State.The Field officials of Agriculture Department are providing necessary guidance to farmers in Balrampur-Ramanujganj district, as per the given action plan.
Constituted nearly three years back in January 2012, the newly-formed district has nearly 54,000 acres of land under corn cultivation this year, whereas in entire Surguja Revenue Division the corn cultivation acerage is increasing significantly with each passing year.
last year, sowing for corn was taken up in 80,000 hectares of land in this division. This year, target of cultivating corn over 83,200 hectares (nearly 2.8 lakh acres of land) was set, but against this target, total 84,690 hectares (11,725 acres of land) has been deployed for corn cultivation.
On Thursday, Commissioner, Surguja Revenue Division TC Mahavar visited Baghima Parsa and many other villages of the district and met the farmers there.He inspected the corn yield in farms. On the occasion, a farmer Shyamsunder in Baghima told him that he is cultivating corn in over 4 acres of land and a yield of 15-20 quintals per acre is expected. This may generate an income of Rs17,000 to Rs18,000 per acre for them.
The Agriculture Department had distributed seeds in advance to the farmers for cultivation of corn. The farmers in Baghima have sown corn seeds in nearly 53 acres of land this year.