There is a growing awareness among the farmers regarding the use of organic fertilisers in the entire State, officials informed.This includes PSB, Raijobium and Ejectovector. About 20.07 lakh packets of organic fertilisers had been sold during the last Kharif season.
During the current Kharif season about about six lakh packets had been distributed to the farmers.Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal said that the target is to distribute 21.15 lakh 15 packets of PSB, Raijobion and Ejectovector during the current Kharif season.
A total of 14.71 lakh packets had been stored in the State.The agriculture scientists had advised the farmers to adopt organic fertiliser. They said that PSB can be used for all sorts of crops. The organic fertilisers strengthen the roots of crops resulting to higher output.On August 31 last year, Chief Minister Raman Singh had directed officials to draw an action plan for operating a State-level ‘Food Processing Mission’ in the State.
Chairing a meeting of the State Industry Department at the office at his residence in Raipur, the Chief Minister said that as per the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission, the State would run the ‘Food Processing Mission’ while using its own resources.
He said that the State Government has made a provision of Rs 12 crore for launching the State-level ‘Food Processing Mission’.
Singh said that the launching of Mission would help farmers get better prices for their farm produce and also open new job avenues for youth in the Food Processing sector.
Officials attending the meeting said that Food Processing Sector in Chhattisgarh is being seen as a ‘focus sector’ to ensure industrial diversity.
The Chhattisgarh Government will also now promote use of solar photo voltaic power plants in cold storages in a bid to conserve huge quantum of energy consumed by such facilities in the State, officials stated. The project is to be implemented by Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA), officials stated.The solar power plant having 50 kw minimum capacity would be installed in a cold storage in the State meant for storing fruits, vegetables and flowers.The cold storage would also be connected to a ‘remote monitoring’ mechanism and the data would be viewable in a desktop or even smart phones.
In April last year, the Chhattisgarh Government had announced that an Agro Mall will be developed at Raipur Agriculture Produce Market.
Chhattisgarh is among only 13 states in the country which had notified the rules to implement the provisions of Agricultural Produce Marketing Regulation (APMR) Act to facilitate contract farming in the State, officials stated.
The other States which had notified the rules are—Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana have notified the rules to implement the provision, officials stated.
Chhattisgarh— the rice bowl of India is heading towards producing a sizeable basket of vegetables and fruits.As per the official data available, the State produced 56.98 lakh metric tonnes of vegetables during 2014-15 which was five per cent more than previous year.Similarly, 21.55 lakh metric tonnes of fruits were cultivated in Chhattiagarh during 2014-15 which was 10 per cent more than the previous year.In this context, the cold chain capacity created by the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries in Chhattisgarh stood at 8500 metric tonnes (MT) till April 2015, officials stated.
In a power point presentation on Prospects of Cold Chain Infrastructure in Eastern Region on April 6, 2015, the Ministry has spelled out its plans of taking up a total of 500 Integrated Cold Chain projects as per the modified pattern of the Central assistance during the next five years across the country to create capacity of 2.5 million tonnes.The core objective of the projects is to make the scheme of cold chain value addition and preservation infrastructure open ended, it stated.