200 pulse processing mills to be set up in Nadia, Murshidabad

Kolkata: The state government has decided to set up 200 pulse processing mills in Nadia and Murshidabad.

It may be mentioned that a major portion of the agricultural land of the two districts were affected due to Wheat Blast in early 2017.

In a bid to check its spread, the crop then had to be damaged and restriction was imposed on cultivation of wheat for the next two years.

In such a situation, the state government provided all sorts of compensation to the farmers. At the same time following direction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the state Agriculture department has made all arrangements to help farmers to undertake alternate farming.

The state government had provided seeds including that of pulses to farmers to undertake alternate farming.

Now, production of pulses in Nadia and Murshidabad has gone up and the necessity of setting up mills to process the same was felt. "In such a situation, the state government has decided to set up around 200 pulse processing mills in the two districts so that farmers do not have to worry about processing of the pulses they have grown on their agricultural land," said state Agriculture minister, Asish Banerjee.

It will be of great help for farmers economically as well as they do not have to invest much for transportation of their yield to get the

same processed.

As a result, it will help them to make a profit. Moreover, it will also encourage farming alternate crops when there is restriction of cultivation of wheat.

This comes at the time when the state government has taken several steps to ensure increase in production of crops in the past six years after coming to power in 2011.

The creation of necessary infrastructure for proper irrigation facilities, proper training facilities and distribution of essential tools necessary for agriculture by the Mamata Banerjee government has not only ensured a high yield but also inspired farmers to go for different

varieties of farming.

Till 2016-17, the production of pulses have increased to 3.36 lakh metric tonne which was around 1.76 lakh metric tonne in 2010-11.