Patna: The agriculture department aims to sow seeds over 41.20 lakh hectares to achieve production of 122.74 lakh metric tonnes of kharif crops this year. The production target is 15 per cent more than that of the previous year i.e. 2017.

Agriculture minister Prem Kumar outlined this target while unveiling his department's plan for the coming kharif season here on Thursday.

Rice happens to be the main kharif crop and its sowing starts in the rainy season. The state aims to achieve 102 lakh metric tonnes of rice production in 2018 by bring 34 lakh hectares of land under its cultivation.

Though the final figures of rice production of 2017 has yet not been calculated, according to the third advance estimate data prepared by the statistics directorate, rice cultivation had taken place over 32.62 lakh hectares in the year leading to production of 78.24 lakh metric tonnes of this foodgrain, which happens to be the staple food of Bihar.

Another major kharif crop is maize and the state aims to have maize cultivation over 4.75 lakh hectares of land to achieve a production target of 18 lakh metric tonnes. In 2017, according to the third advance estimates, maize had been sown over 2.51 lakh hectares during the kharif season and production stood at 7.16 lakh metric tonnes.

Similarly, targets have been set for other kharif crops like pulses and oil seeds.

Addressing participants in the inaugural function the department's special drive for kharif season, minister Prem Kumar said: "The goal of this drive is to deliver the benefits of department's scheme to farmers and also equip them with the latest knowledge so that the desired production and productivity levels can be achieved and farmers' income could increase."

Similar programmes will be organised in all divisional headquarters on May 14 and in the district headquarters on May 17. Thereafter, special vehicles will be flagged off from Patna on May 23, which would travel across the state and provide facilities such as treatment of seeds before sowing and also quality seeds to farmers.

Also between May 23 and 31, block-level training-cum-distribution camps will be organised across the state for farmers. They will be educated about various schemes being run by the agriculture department. In these camps, seeds will be distributed at subsidised rates to select farmers.

The minister said during 2018-19, Rs 8.49 crore will be spent as subsidy to farmers who will get prescribed varieties of paddy seeds at 80 per cent subsidy. A total of 18,000 quintals of seeds will be distributed among farmers.