The farmers of insurgency infested Narayanpur distruct have decided to form a ‘like-minded’ group of local farmers to market agricultural produce.
The decision was taken by certain progressive farmers in a symposium held in the district recently. The group would promote farmers to grow crops of their choice and also together market them. As many as 40 farmers of the district had participated in the symposium. The farmers have also decided to get their farmers’ producer organisation registered.
Notably, as a result of various beneficial schemes offered by the Chhattisgarh Government to the farmers, there has been an increase of about 12,000 hectares in the cultivated area of the Rabi and Kharif crops in the insurgency hit Narayanpur district of Bastar region during the past six years.
The area under cultivation has increased from 54,000 hectares to 66,000 hectares during the past six years.The officials said that the amount of seeds distributed among the farmers of the district for Rabi and Kharif crops has increased from 683 quintals to 737 quintals in six years.
As many as 509 irrigation pumps have been distributed among the farmers engaged in vegetable farming under the Shaakambari scheme.The Shaakambari scheme is being promoted to encourage farmers to utilize their own water resources and natural water sources. Small and medium farmers who use 0.5 to 5 Horse Power irrigation pumps are given a loan of Rs 16875 to purchase the pumps. The farmers are given high technology equipment to boost the farming sector.
To encourage advance farming techniques, the farmers are provided loan for purchase of modern agriculture equipments.
From the financial year 2008-09 to 2014-15, the farmers have been provided 17797 hand operated equipments and 68 power driven equipments.
As many as 85 tube-wells have been dug in past six year while 165 sprinkler sets were distributed under the micro irrigation project. Financial assistance has also been provided to 75 farmers for installation of tube-wells.
Two Agriculture Service Centres are in operation to provide assistance to the farmers. The Government has also given approval for setting up an Agriculture College from the coming academic year 2015-16. Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal in the month of May this year had sanctioned 40 Farmers' Information Service Centres for six districts of Bastar Division.
Ten Centres will be opened at Jagdalpur and Kanker each and five each at Narayanpur, Dantewada, Kondagaon and Bijapur districts. Agrawal had attended several farmers' meetings in these districts as a part of 'lok Suraaj' campaign and promised them that 40 Farmers' Information Service Centres in the region.
He said that the State Agriculture Department authorities are laying stress on horticulture, animal husbandry and fish rearing and a master plan is almost ready.
The sanctioning of service centres are a part of that strategy. Agrawal said that the Centres would provide expert advice to the farmers. Training will be imparted to the agriculturists at regular intervals. He said that 469 Farmers' Information Service Centres have been opened since 2008-09 to 2011-12 under the National Agriculture Development Project.
About 357 centres have their own buildings and the farmers are trained at these centres. He said at present Raipur district has 11 Farmers' Information Service Centres.
Notably, the State Government would soon be setting up soil testing labs in eight more districts of the State.
The Government has prepared an action plan for preparing soil health card for 37 lakh farmers during the current year, officials stated. During 2014-15, a total of 9.50 lakh soil health cards were prepared for the farmers.
The cards would help farmers do better farming with information loaded on health of soil and the appropriate crop for cultivation on their land.
The Government had made a budget provision of Rs 8 crore for preparation offsetting up of soil health laboratories in the State.
The Chhattisgarh Government has prepared a three-year action plan to carry out soil testing of farm lands for ascertaining the fertility of agricultural lands.
The Government plans to collect more than nine lakh soil samples as part of the project for their examination.
After tests are carried out, the farmers would be handed over ‘soil health cards’.
Currently soil testing laboratories have been functioning in district headquarters of Raipur, Durg, Rajnandgaon, Jagdalpur, Bilaspur, Raigarh and Ambikapur.
In December last year, the Department of Soil Science and Agriculture Chemistry of Indira Gandhi Agriculture University (IGAU) started running of its mobile unit to test quality of soil at the agriculture science centres situated in 19 districts of the State.
Moreover, the Chhattisgarh Government in September this year had set a target to electrify as many as 36 interior villages of the insurgency-infested Narayanpur district under the Deendayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana till March 31, 2016.
In a video-conference, Principal Secretary, Energy, Aman Kumar Singh along with the Managing Director of Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company limited (CSPDCl) Ankit Anand and other officials directed the officials concerned to come up with a significant work plan regarding the electrification of the 36 remote villages of the district within a specific time-frame. The list of the villages includes Taropal,Guttapal, Gauradand, Kacora, Teradul, Garadapal, Kulanar, Malecur, Botha, Ekodi, Kurusnar, Temargaon and Hitulwad.
The data of Census 2001 including details about the targetted villages is being consulted for the plan