Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal has 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 were 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 Rs8 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 andAgriculture 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. The mobile unit is scheduled to render its service for one month at each agriculture science centre to test quality of the soil brought by the farmers of the respective district.
In the first phase, the mobile unit reached Dhamtari, where District Collector Bhim Singh participated in a soil testing camp to learn the process and also to know about quality of the soil brought by the farmers of Rudri village. The farmers were charged Rs10 as fee for soil testing. Besides, if the farmers want to check availability of micro elements in the soil, Rs50 would be the charged additionally.
Moreover, Agrawal had recently raised the demand of opening 'Agriculture Science Centres' in seven districts of the State. He had raised the demand in the 86th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR) held in New Delhi on Wednesday. Agrawal said that Chhattisgarh is a tribal State and the farmers need to learn about modern farming techniques and thus the Agri Science Centres are needed in the State.
To achieve the target of providing Health Card of the land to the farmers within three years, it is essential to establish soil testing labs along with Agri Science Centres at the district level. He said that out of total 27 districts of the State, Agri Science Centres have been established in 20 districts. New Agri Science Centres are needed in the remaining Mungeli, Bemetara, Sukma, Kondagaon, Balod, Surajpur and Raipur districts. Soil testing labs are also needed in all districts, he said.
Advocating for organic farming, Agrawal said that the farmers need to be encouraged for this. He also raised the problems in certification of organic farm products as the process is time consuming and costly. Agrawal requested the Union Agriculture Minister to simplify the certification process as the present process is discouraging for the farmers going for organic farming.
He highlighted the achievements of Chhattisgarh in the field of Agriculture Education and informed that there is dearth of qualified faculty in these institutions. The Minister said that like University Grants Commission, the ICAR should also provide financial assistance to these institutions. Agrawal also emphasized on increasing the practical training of Agriculture students from one year to two years.
He said that Chhattisgarh has increased the number of agriculture colleges from 9 to 19 in 10 years including 7 colleges started in previous year. A new veterinary college has been started in the present financial year and three polytechnics will be started for veterinary sciences. As many as 8 new courses including water management, value addition of food products, organic farming and honeybee keeping would also be started, Agrawal said. The students are being sent to national-level research centres from the State. The State government has also increased scholarship for agriculture students, he said.
The Chhattisgarh Kamdhenu University has been established to educate and promote research work in the field of animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries. The State government has sent a proposal of Rs 10 crore to ICAR for modernization of Agri-farms under the Agriculture Department, he said. It may also be recalled that the Agriculture Service Centres established by Chhattisgarh government provide agriculturalequipments on rent to the farmers, officials stated here. This apart, 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, they stated.
More than 75,000 farmers have been benefited under the scheme. The 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, the 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 has taken up employment-oriented activities to march ahead on the path of progress. To encourage farmers practicing traditional animal husbandry, the State government started the scheme of providing loan upto Rs1 lakh at one per cent interest, from previous year.
Moreover, several schemes have also been started to promote fishery. Chhattisgarh has become self-dependent in supply of fish seeds. In year 2013-14, fish seeds worth 1.22 crores were produced. More than two lakh fishermen have been provided employment opportunities through development of 94 per cent of the total area of 1.635 lakh hectares is available in the State for fishery.
Giving due importance to agriculture, the State Government presented its first agricultural budget in year 2013-14. Farmers need cash for various agricultural activities right from sowing to reaping. The State Government has also commenced weather-based crop insurance scheme to support farmers. Seven major crops were included in this scheme namely paddy, corn, arhar, soyabean, peanut, moong and urad. Other than addressing the need of cash and multi-crop arrangements, the State government has also taken significant decisions to ensure regular supply of electricity, which is another major requirement of farmers for cultivation.