 |
| Vaidehi Sharan Mishra, additional agriculture
commissioner of Jharkhand, at his office. Picture by Hardeep Singh |
Additional agriculture commissioner Vaidehi Sharan
Mishra believes that the agricultural scenario in Jharkhand can be changed by
giving the required thrust to different aspects.
While the state requires 46 lakh metric tonnes
of foodgrain annually, it produces 22 lakh metric tonnes from only 15 lakh hectares,
which is also half of the total cultivable land ? 35 lakh hectares ? in the state.
But Mishra, a gold medallist in political science
from Patna University, thinks the state can well be self-sufficient in agriculture.
Mishra, who began his administrative career in 1974 and during his stint as vice-chairman
of Ranchi Regional Development Authority, deputy commissioners of Jamtara and
Pakur, has left behind some visible milestones in Rock Garden in Ranchi, Parbat
Vihar in Jamtara and Prakriti Vihar in Pakur.
With a change of charge from district administration
to state secretariat, Mishra says towards the end of his administrative career,
he has finally come to the grassroots of agriculture, which he would like to see
on a par with the ones in some of the developed states in the country.
In an interview with Shiv Charan Singh,
he spoke on the schemes that the state government had unveiled for making the
agriculture scenario better in the state.
Jharkhand does not have any dearth of cultivable
land but only half of the land is utilised. Why has it been so?
Two things are mainly responsible for this: non-availability
of proper irrigation facilities and lack of required zeal on part of the farmers.
But with the schemes that we have put on the anvil, we hope not only to utilise
all the cultivable land, but also to meet the total annual requirement of foodgrain.
As for irrigation facilities, we have planned to dig
up over 1,000 wells across the state. As part of the Bhumi and Jal Sanrakshan
Scheme, for which a budgetary allocation of Rs 19.2 crore has been made, wells
with a diameter of 20 feet and a depth of 40 feet will be dug up in each of the
22 districts for farmers.
They will also be given necessary equipment such as
pump sets and pipes. Each unit of well will incur a cost of Rs 2 lakh.
We have increased the budgetary allocation for the
irrigation department. Last year, it was Rs 80 crore and for 2006 it has been
raised to Rs 110 crore.
With monsoon already set in, it is time the farmers
are on their toes tilling land. What are the specific plans?
We have started distribution of certified and hybrid
seeds among the farmers. According to our plans, 92,000 quintals of certified
seeds are to be distributed among farmers, out of which over 22,000 quintals of
seeds will be provided by the state villages themselves.
The remainder will be purchased from Union government
agencies inviting expression of interest.
Similarly, about 500 quintals of hybrid seeds will
be distributed among farmers.
Besides, we also initiated a seed exchange scheme.
If a farmer brings 1 kg of certified seeds, he will be given 6 kg of normal seeds
in exchange.
These programmes will be carried out through the district-
and block-level agriculture officials. A budgetary allocation of Rs 9 crore has
been made to meet this end.
According to the reports pouring in from different
districts, the seed distribution programme has been almost through.
Although we had a very good beginning of the monsoon
this year, still, the drought possibility cannot be ruled out completely. In such
exigencies, what are the plans of your department?
We have a plan to compensate the loss of paddy due
to drought. The package mainly includes reaching the farmers with necessary help
for the alternative farming of ginger, turmeric etc, which could be grown when
there is not that much water available.
There are over 50 per cent marginal farmers with less
than 2.5 hectares of land who would be taken in the gamut of the anti-drought
benefit scheme on a priority basis. We have earmarked a fund of Rs 15.5 crore
towards this.
Crops failure can be attributed to lack of knowledge
on part of farmers, who do not know what kind of crop to grow on a particular
stretch of land. With agriculture taking a new lease of life, do you have any
scheme to help the farmers on soil-testing front?
We do have a soil-testing scheme. But I will speak
of this with special reference to a direction from chief minister Arjun Munda,
who has asked our department to ensure soil-testing of the farmers? land with
the help of Mobile Soil Testing Vans. However, we have a swing of stationary soil-testing
centres in each district, where farmers can come and test soil with a view to
know the kind of crop that they can grow on the land. Besides, the chief minister
has asked us to strengthen the Mobile Agriculture Services such as training of
farmers, on-spot soil-testing, electronic database of farmers, issuance of electronic
cards among others.
What about equipping the farmers with latest technical
gadgets?
We have an agriculture engineering boost scheme, for
which the state government has already made a budgetary allocation of Rs 5 crore.
Through this scheme, we would like to assist the farmers to buy agriculture equipment
such as power tillers, pump sets, power harvesters and many others.
In this scheme, farmers belonging to the SC/ST categories
will be given 75 per cent subsidy and those from the general and other categories
can avail 50 per cent subsidy over the agriculture equipment.
Jharkhand has a lot of scope for horticulture.
What is the department doing on this front?
We have signed MoUs with as many as seven NGOs, which
would assist the state government in mapping the path of Jharkhand to carve out
its niche in the fruit mart of the country by properly implementing the schemes
under Centre-sponsored National Horticulture Mission.
|
