The Chhattisgarh Government had released about 72,316 quintal pulses (yellow daal) for distribution to the Below Poverty line (BPl) ration card-holders in the Non-scheduled areas of 21 districts under the Public Distribution System (PDS) in January this year, officials stated. The Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department said that two kilograms of ‘Yellow Daal’ is given at the rate of Rs10 per kg to the BPl ration card holder.
Sowing for rabi crops had been completed in more than 9.5 lakh hectares in Chhattisgarh till last month, officials stated. This already accounted for 51 per cent of the target of 18.76 lakh hectares set by the Agriculture Department for the Rabi season. It includes food-grains, pulses, oil-seeds and vegetables, they stated. Agriculture department officials stated that a target of 1.70 lakh hectares has been set for wheat and sowing of wheat has been done in 70330 hectares so far.
Similarly, target for paddy is 1.74 lakh hectares, for maize is 70000 hectares, for jau-jawar is 5360 hectares. In totality, the target for food grains is 4.20 lakh hectares and sowing of food grains has been done in 85,860 hectares so far. They further said that gram has been sown in 2.14 lakh hectares, peas in 27,790 hectares, masoor in 16,950 hectares, moong in 12,240 hectares, urad in 19,250 hectares, tiura in 3.05 lakh hectares, kulthi in 22,320 hectares and other pulses in 6440 hectares.
The farmers have completed sowing on 61,3775 hectares against the target of more than 9 lakh hectares. Among the oil-seeds, the farmers have sown alsi in 41000 hectares, rai-sarso and toriya in 97930 hectares, til in 2240 hectares, sunflower in 550 hectares, kusum in 4250 hectares, groundnut in 2780 hectares, and other oil-seeds in 3950 hectares.
A target of 2.91 lakh has been set for oil-seeds and the farmers have sown more than 1.52 lakh hectares so far. Sugarcane has been sown in 15150 hectares and vegetables in 92780 hectares, the officials said. In the current kharif marketing year 2014-15, support price for thick paddy variety has been fixed as Rs1360 and for thin variety it is Rs1400 per quintal.
It may also be recalled that the Chhattisgarh Government has set the target to develop additional irrigation capacity of nearly four lakh hectares area in the next four years. From 12th to 19th phase of NABARD Scheme, total 29 projects have been completed to add up 19,748 hectares to irrigation capacity of the State.
Betterment of agriculture-farmers is simply not possible without the expansion of irrigation facilities. The State Government has always taken it as its priority to ensure proper utilisation of water-resources for expanding total area of irrigated land in State, officials stated. As a result of several measures, the irrigation capacity of State has increased from 20 per cent to 34.20 per cent. During kharif season, the actual irrigated area in the State expanded from 5.35 lakh hectares to 11.70 lakh hectares, officials stated.
Nearly 74.19 per cent of the total irrigation capacity of the State is being utilised for Kharif crops, which is far better than many States of the country, officials claimed.