State sees rise in avg growth of food grain production

Bengal has witnessed an average growth in production of food grains by 20.02 percent in the past six years after the change of guard in the state.

A comparative data of the state agriculture department shows that the average food grain production in between 2011 and 2016 is 170.22 Lakh Metric Tonne (LMT) while that of 2006 to 2011 during the Left Front government was 157.77 LMT.

In the past six years, the state has achieved a success in increasing the average production of food grains by such a huge percentage.

This comes at a time when the Mamata Banerjee-government has bagged the Centre's very prestigious Krishi Karman Award for the fifth consecutive year for excellence in agriculture. The success of the Mamata Banerjee-government has come following a series of steps taken up by the state agriculture department in ensuring use of new technologies and techniques to increase the production of food grains. At the same time the state government has ensured a steady increase in the farmers' household annual income.

Purnendu Basu, state Agriculture minister, said: "The population is increasing and there is no other alternate way to ensure adequate food supply for all apart from increasing production. So, necessary measures in this regard were taken which yielded results."

Among all major crops, the highest increase recorded is in the cultivation of maize in 2015-16 compared to that of 2010-11 followed by pulses. Oilseed production has also risen. It may be mentioned that there is a gap in requirement and production of pulses, oilseeds and maize in the state. So the increase in cultivation of these crops besides remaining the highest rice producer in the country has immensely benefitted the state.

The area for production of maize, pulses and oilseeds have also increased by 72.72 percent, 35.19 percent and 16.45 percent in the past six years.

Besides motivating farming of such crops, the state government had also ensured land development and creation of irrigation potential.

The 141 automated weather stations which have been set up in the past four years ensuring automatic recording of weather data also helped in ensuring an increase in production of food grains. Most importantly, the the state government has empowered farmers with new methods of crop cultivation and it brought a revolutionary change in the agricultural sector in the state.