One more link has been added to the chain of different national awards that the adolescent Chhattisgarh received during the last 10 years. Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has declared to honour Chhattisgarh with the prestigious National Krishi Karman Award for the second time for highest paddy production, informed in an official statement issued here on Friday.
In 2010-11, the State had received this award for producing 61.59-lakh metric tonne paddy. This time, the State has been selected for this award for producing 73.40-lakh metric tonne paddy in the year 2012-13.
Chief Minister Raman Singh, who was in New Delhi on Friday, gave credit of this achievement to the lakhs of hardworking farmers of the State and while congratulating them said that “the State got this honour due to the hard work of our farmers.”
Singh said that because of the pro-farmer policies of the State Government a new interest has been generated in the farmers of the State towards farming. On the one hand the Government has been giving agriculture loan to the farmers at one per cent interest, on the other it gives 7,500 units free electricity to them for up to 5 HP irrigation pumps.
Because of the expansion of various irrigation projects in the state, the irrigation capacity of the state has been increased from 15-lakh hectare to 19-lakh hectare, in comparison to the year 2003. About 2.75 lakh irrigation pump connections have been given so far. Excellent arrangements have been made for paddy procurement, he added.
During the last ten years the state government procured about 4.24 crore MT paddy and have paid prescribed support price and bonus costing Rs 43,000 crore. last year, the state government has given Rs 270 per quintal paddy bonus to the farmers and this year it has been decided to give Rs 300 per quintal.
Before selection for this prestigious award, officers of the state agricultural directorate, in a detailed presentation before the senior officers of the union agriculture ministry had informed about the paddy production in the state for the year 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13. After the presentation, the union government, by conducting a high-level evaluation, selected Chhattisgarh for this award.
Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, while congratulating chief minister Dr Raman Singh for this prestigious award, praised his leadership. Pawar said that the contribution of the chief minister, the agriculture minister and the officers of the agriculture department was most significant in helping the farmers for increasing paddy production.
The Krishi Karman Award will be presented by President Pranab Mukherjee at the Agroforestry World Congress to be held at New Delhi on February 10, 2014.