CG no more a rice bowl, but has become storehouse: Champu

Five agri colleges, one horticulture college to be opened

New agri engineering college at Raipur

25 vet clinics to be opened, new vet college to be opened at Bilaspur

House passes demand for budgetary grants of Rs 1423.51 cr for agriculture, animal Thusbandry, fishery and labour departments

Raipur, March 05, 2013

Chhattisgarh is no more a rice bowl but has become rice storehouse of the country. The National statistical commission’s figures too acknowledges that Chhattisgarh has produced over 100 lakh MT paddy. These words were expressed by agriculture, animal husbandry, fishery and labour minister Chandrashekhar Sahu while he was speaking during debate over demand for budgetary grants of Rs 1420.77 crore for his departments at state assembly on Tuesday. The House passed demand for grants for these departments through voice vote.

“Agriculture is actually related with public life. The BJP government’s policy too is based on village, poor and farmer. We have rather adopted concept of inclusive growth pioneered by Pt Deendayal Upadhyay,” Sahu said. 

Claiming that Chhattisgarh had become migration-free state, he said the farmers hailed the government’s announcement of Rs 270 paddy bonus for one year. “We will ask the Centre to increase paddy MSP up to Rs 2000 per quintal and implement recommendations of Dr Swaminathan’s Commission,” he added.

Considering increasing scarcity of labourers in agriculture sector, he said the government was encouraging farmers to use paddy transplanter and combine harvester as alternatives. “For the first time, the farmers will get Rs 50000 grant to buy combine harvester. We will also urge the Centre to give Rs 1.50 lakh grant from its side for this purpose so that a farmer could get a total of Rs 2 lakh grant. Similarly, the grant for purchasing paddy transplanter has been hiked from 40% to 50%,” he added.

He informed the House that the government would open five agriculture colleges at Kanker, Bemetara, Raigarh, Rajnandgaon and Koria. “The government will also open one horticulture college at Jagdalpur. In addition, it will establish one agriculture engineering college on the name of Swami Vivekanand at Raipur,” he added.

 “To encourage farmers to work as scientist, we will give fellowship to 50 progressive farmers. For this, we will take help of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR),” he further informed. 

“We will also reserve 5% seats in agriculture colleges for children of farmers,” he said.

He said soon a potato research centre would be established in Mainpat. He said in Horticulture sector the Bastarians were doing well and had even outperformed the farmers of plain areas. “Despite naxalism, our farmers of remote areas are progressing,” he claimed.

He informed the House that the Chhattisgarh government would develop green corridor through agriculture in reply to Maoists’ red corridor that stretches from Pashupati to Tirupati.

“We have focussed on sustainable farming and hence there was no draught under BJP’s regime,” he said.

The minister said the government would also open agriculture science centre in seven districts. “For this, we have sent a proposal to the Centre,” he added.

He informed the House that the government will open 25 new veterinary clinics, three vet polytechnics, upgrade 15 veterinary clinics into vet hospitals and establish a new veterinary college at Bilaspur. 

To increase milk production he said the government would include genome technology in state’s agriculture university. “This technology is successfully being adopted in Denmark and Canada,” he said.

He said the government would also establish wildlife health and forensic centre, animal biotech centre and Kamdhenu research centre. In addition, he said cow reserve would be developed in Bodla. 

Hoping that the national dairy plan would flow funds after the state constituted dairy federation, he said the financial succor would enable the Chhattisgarh to increase milk production by 70000 litres.

He highlighted that the state had potential to produce olive oil. “Similarly, Koria district has potential to grow pears. We will include these factors under National Agriculture Development Scheme,” he said.

He pointed that the state needed cold storage chain for terminal market. “We will also establish ripening centre, packaging unit and import-export centre,” he said.

He informed that Rs 100 crore would be spent in constructing platforms in paddy procurement centres.

He said the government had identified 20 lakh non-institutional labourers for the first time and would launch six schemes for them. Besides, we will construct Atal Shramik Sadans (ASS) in 50 development blocks at the cost of Rs 15-20 lakh each. For this, there is a provision Rs 10 crore in the budget. This will be the first instalment for ASS,” he said.

He claimed that state people were taking interest in fishery sector. “We will soon constitute fishery welfare board. We will also develop a fish market in Durg with the help of Durg municipal corporation,” he said.

With increasing demand of an aquarium in the capital city, he said the government had made a provision of Rs one crore for aquarium in Purkhauti Muktangan.