Calcutta, July 10: After land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah, it was the turn of agriculture minister Naren De to voice apprehensions about the acquisition of agricultural land for industry.
“There is a problem in the agriculture sector already. The population is going up and so is the pressure on land. We are not in favour of giving away agricultural land. What if we cannot sustain the current level of productivity”? De asked today.
According to the minister, food security is not limited to rice production. “Foodgrain doesn’t mean rice alone. We’re lagging behind in several other crops, where we have to lay emphasis.”
Although Bengal grows surplus rice and potatoes, it has to import 50 per cent of its wheat from other states. It is also 75 per cent short in pulses and has to procure 60 per cent of oilseeds from outside.
Mollah had expressed fears last week that given the rate of acquisition of agricultural land for industrialisation and urbanisation, the food security of the state would soon be affected.
De said: “Our first priority would be to find non-agricultural land. If none is available, we will have to find single-crop land, which will be least damaging to agriculture.”
In a bid to improve productivity, the agriculture department will carry out soil tests to determine its nature and composition and ascertain whether alternative crops can be grown there.
“The National Bureau of Soil Survey will collect 76,000 soil samples from across the state for a year-long study. It will determine which soil is deficient in which particular nutrients and what alternative crops can be grown there,” the agriculture minister said.
Cultivation of alternative crops will be tried especially in the laterite-soil belt of Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore districts.
The government’s earlier bid to bring industry to the fallow land of this backward region had remained largely unsuccessful because of inadequate infrastructure.
On July 21, De, Mollah and commerce and industries minister Nirupam Sen will meet to discuss a land map.
