Assam agriculture minister Pramila Rani Brahma in Guwahati on Tuesday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Sept. 21: The Centre has agreed to include Assam in the green revolution scheme and has asked the state to prepare an action plan.

Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal are included under the scheme, called Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana programme.“We had made a request to Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to include Assam in the green revolution scheme. Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi wrote to him following which Pawar acceded to the request,” agriculture minister Pramila Rani Brahma said at a news conference here today.

Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had in this year’s budget announced a proposal for providing Rs 400 crore under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana for extending green revolution to the eastern region of the country, comprising Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal.

Green revolution envisages adoption of new seed varieties, farm machines, nutrients, pesticides and knowledge-based intervention as developed for different agro-climatic zones to increase production.

Brahma said this was good news for Assam as it would help it to make strides in the agricultural sector which, in the process, would speed up development in the state.

The agricultural growth rate of Assam in 2008-09 is a measly 1.2 per cent, which is projected to increase to 2.17 per cent in 2009-10. The figures for 2009-10 are yet to be compiled.The growth rate for 2010-11 has been targeted at 3.15 percent.

The minister said there was more news to cheer as Assam’s performance has been declared the best in the eastern region under the rice scheme of the National Food Security Mission (NFSM).

The best performance award was announced at the National Conference on Agriculture for Rabi Campaign 2010-11 on September 17 in New Delhi.

The mission was launched in 2007-08 to increase productivity of rice, maintenance of soil health, creation of employment opportunities and enhancing the farm-level economy.

Thirteen districts of Assam were included in the NFSM-rice. These are Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Darrang, Dhemaji, Goalpara, Karbi Anglong, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur, Morigaon, Nagaon, Nalbari, Sonitpur and Tinsukia.

“There was an increase of 35.88 per cent and 18.52 per cent in production and productivity respectively in the 13 NFSM districts during 2008-09,” the minister said.

Brahma said the approach had been to bridge the yield gap in respect of rice through dissemination of improved technologies and farm management practices.