Dantewada district in the Maoist-hotbed of South Bastar in Chhattisgarh, would be awarded with a national award under Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). Chief Minister Raman Singh expressed happiness over Central Government’s decision to confer the national award to the district.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi would confer Dantewada district with the award on 10th anniversary of MGNREGS on February 2 this year at a function in New Delhi. The MGNREGS funds are to be utilised for encouraging organic farming under ‘Mocho Badi Yojana’ and milk production under ‘Shirsagar Project’ in Dantewada to benefit thousands of farmers.
Around 900 farmers were encouraged to practice organic farming by fencing the fields from four corners to protect the crops. With this, there was gradual increase in produce per hectare. Incidentally, the Chhattisgarh Government embarked on an ‘Organic Farming Mission’ on an experimental basis in five districts of the State namely Kanker, Koriya, Raigarh, Raipur and Dantewada last year.
The National Agriculture Development Scheme is being implemented since 2007-08 with objectives of expanding cultivation area of fruits, vegetables and spice crops and 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 fertilisers to the tribal families holding forest rights certificates. The arrangements for free distribution of seeds and fertilisers 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. Besides cultivation, animal husbandry and fishery are the additional source of income for farmers.
Hence, State Government has included animal husbandry and fishery under its all-round agricultural development policy. With the help of Government schemes, large number of farmers have taken up employment-oriented activities to march ahead on the path of progress, officials stated.