Chhattisgarh’s farmers seem to be taking fancy to growing more maize crop apart from the traditional paddy this Kharif season. The Chhattisgarh Government has set a target for sowing of various crops at 48.20 lakh hectares during the current Kharif season, officials stated.
Similarly, maize had been sown in 17,000 hectares as against the target of 2.25 lakh hectares so far. Currently, sowing had also been underway also for paddy and soyabean crops.
Agriculture Department officials informed that the sowing target for paddy is 36.45 lakh hectares out of which farmers have already carried out sowing in 3.76 lakh hectares of land. This apart, the government had earmarked 1.36 lakh hectares of land for vegetables and fibrous crops.
Notably, a State-level Monitoring cell has been established at the Directorate of Agriculture in Raipur to keep track of the availability of basic ingredients for the Kharif season 2015.
The move is to ensure farmer are made available urea, seeds, high-quality farm equipment, organic manure and other necessary material, officials stated.
Notably, Agriculture Service Centres have been established in every development block of the State from where the farmers are provided agricultural equipments on rent.
Chhattisgarh now has also set a target of promoting cultivation of vegetables in 4,425 hectares of land under National Horticulture Mission. An amount of Rs175 crore had been earmarked for implementing its Annual Plan 2015-16 under National Horticulture Mission in Chhattisgarh.
The annual plan was endorsed in a meeting of the 12th Working Committee of the State Horticulture Development Society chaired by Additional Chief Secretary of Agriculture Department Ajay Singh.
The plan comprises a target for cultivating vegetables in an area of 4,425 hectares for which a provision of Rs15.16 crore was proposed. A provision of Rs13.50 crore had been made to promote vegetable cultivation in the State.
A target of 2,500 hectares had been set for growing condiment based crops while a target of 2,240 hectares had been set for Floriculture .
A provision of Rs4.50 crore had also been made for carrying out organic farming and Rs 1.52 crore for promotion of bee keeping.This apart, a provision of Rs1.12 crore had been made to develop new water sources.
last year, the State Government had embarked on an ‘Organic Farming Mission’ on an experimental basis in five districts of the State namely Kanker, Koriya, Raigarh, Raipur and Dantewada, officials said.
The National Agriculture Development Scheme is being implemented since year 2007-08 with objectives of expanding cultivation area of fruits, vegetables and spice cropsand supplying advanced high-quality seeds to farmers.
Earlier under Shakhambari Scheme, subsidy was provided for only electricity and diesel based irrigation pumps but now farmers using petrol based irrigation pumps are also eligible for availing subsidy under this scheme, they stated.
The Government had been providing free seeds and fertilizers to the tribal families holding forest rights certificates. The arrangements for free distribution of seeds and fertilizers have also been made.
Agriculture Service Centres have been established in every development block of the State from where the farmers are provided agricultural equipments on rent.
Soon Soil Quality Card Distribution Scheme will also be started to inform the farmers about quality and type of soil in their farms. Under this scheme, soil quality cards will be distributed to all 37 lakh farmers of state in coming five years.
The State Government’s ‘Kisaan Samriddhi Yojana’ has also proved to be a boon for farmers. Under this scheme, farmers are provided section-wise grant for tube-well digging. More than 75,000 farmers have been benefited under the scheme. State Government is operating number of other schemes, which have proved extremely beneficial for the farmers, officials stated.