The State Government has decided to promote modern farming technologies among rural farmers. Agriculture Minister Randhir Kumar Singh on Saturday said well-equipped Agrotech vans along with agricultural scientists and officials will be sent to every village to ensure dissemination of modern farming technologies.
Presently, a larger section of farmers is unaware about the utilisation of the latest farming technologies. Singh was addressing farmers from across the State at the inaugural ceremony of the three-day Agrotech Kisan Mela at Birsa Agricultural University (BAU). He accepted that the farmers are deprived of Central and State Government’s facilities due to lack of publicity.
The vans are expected to improve the awareness among farmers by strengthening the publicity initiatives taken by the State Government. Highlighting the ongoing efforts of the newly formed State Government, Singh pointed out the Budget of around Rs900 crore fixed for the farmers. “We hope to bring out the Agricultural Policy of Jharkhand within three months. Agriculture deserves the status of an Industry in the State,” he said.
Also, he felt that programmes like that of Kisan Mela should be conducted at district and block levels for 15 days or one month. “One lakh vacancies of farming and fisheries will soon be fulfilled among the recruitment list prepared by CM. The poor condition of the electricity will soon be improved and farmers would get six hours power supply in a day. Moreover, solar agricultural kits are to be distributed among them,” maintained Singh.
Singh’s assurances seemed a ray of hope for the men and women farmers participating in the fair. Gumla based farmer Remika Oraon said there is acute water crisis in her area but she fails to gain information on the techniques used for water storage. Similarly, Debo Pahan, a farmer from Khunti said they hardly get scope to know about the modern farming activities due to which they are still working on traditional farming mode.
According to the faculty members of BAU displaying stalls with latest technologies, Jharkhand farmers are lack knowledge on commercial farming. “Plastic above 20 microns can be helpful in storing water and growing seeds in rainy, winter or summer season. Unfortunately, few farmers are adopting the mode available at a low cost,” said Dr Pramod of Agricultural Engineering Department of BAU.
Meanwhile, BAU vice-chancellor (VC) George John requested Singh to cooperate in availing employment opportunities to their pass out graduate students. Overall 120 stalls in association with Professional Agricultural Management Services (PAMS) are being displayed here of which 40 stalls belong to BAU.