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Delhi

Bihar to get Rs 300 cr for revamping seed production

Aiming to give a boost to seed production system in Bihar, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Thursday said the Centre was going to launch a project for establishing and strengthening farmer’s participatory seed production system in the poll-bound state. 

“The seed production system in Bihar is very weak. During Rabi 2014-15, the certified seed production and availability by the State Seed Corporation was only 1,26,153 quintals (12 <g data-gr-id="29">per cent</g>), while the availability by state agency is <g data-gr-id="28">meagere</g> 78,470 quintals (just 7.46 <g data-gr-id="30">per cent</g>) against the state requirement of 10,50,860 quintals,” Singh said, adding that a special package of Rs 300 crore would be provided by Centre for the scheme.

Explaining the plan, the Minister said the scheme will have 50 farmers’ participatory seed production system, involving 12,500 farmers. The scheme  will cover all districts in the state. 

“The location of the units is proposed in the state seed farms as Bihar has 244 such farms, of which seven have over 50 hectares land,” Singh said.

Explaining the purpose of the seed production systems, the Union Minister said: “Through the farmers’ participatory seed production, the newly released varieties and the latest technology will be disseminated to farmers with the help of scientists of agriculture universities. It is expected that about 2,000 tonnes of seed is proposed to be produced.”

The productivity of rice was 1,753 kg/ha in 2013-14, which is far less than the national average, which stands at 2,416 kg/ha, while the Punjab’s productivity average is 3,943 kg/ha. 

In case of wheat, the productivity of Bihar is 2,427 kg/ha against the national average of 3,123 kg/ha, while Haryana tops the chart with <g data-gr-id="21">average</g> of 4,710 kg/ha.

Bihar package: Prasad slams Nitish, Kejriwal
Hitting out at Arvind Kejriwal and Nitish Kumar for their combined attack on PM Narendra Modi, the Centre on Thursday questioned the Delhi CM’s commitment to fighting corruption and dismissed as a “political ploy” Bihar CM’s insistence on special category status. Ruling out <g data-gr-id="61">poliitics</g> behind Rs 1.25 lakh crore package for Bihar, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who hails from the state, said: “Everybody is happy except three persons – Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad and Rahul Gandhi. It’s a matter of great distress that the Bihar CM did not thank the PM for announcing such a big historic package for Bihar.”
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