Project taken to put fallow land in Paschimanchal districts in profitable use

Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government has taken up a unique project to put fallow land in Paschimanchal districts into profitable use through integrated farming with the convergence of multiple departments under the Matir Srishti scheme.

The project that will be implemented in Purulia, Bankura, West Midnapore, Jhargram, West Burdwan and Birbhum will ensure assured income for the self help groups who will be working in the project. The target is to utilise 2 lakh acre land in these six districts.

"There are huge tracts of land particularly in the western districts that are lying idle as agricultural activities is impossible due to lack of irrigation facilities. We will be developing orchards, creating waterbodies for pisciculture and animal husbandry project in the form of chicken farm, duck farm, goatery etc in a single tract of land. Water harvesting facilities will be developed in the same land as there is non availability of irrigation facilities. The departments that has been brought under this synergy are Horticulture, Water Resources Investigation, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry," said a senior official of Nabanna. Lands belonging to the state government, any community or private land can be utilised for the project. The project involves the requirement of workers under MGNREGA for levelling of land, digging of pit etc.

To begin with the Horticulture department is providing high quality saplings of mango and guava for plantation. In between two rows of the saplings the land is being intercropped and saplings of

banana or papaya is being planted.

The guava will be yielding fruits after at least 2 years while in case of mango it will take around 3 years. But papaya or banana will bear fruits in 7 to 8 months. In the mean time waterbodies will be created for fish cultivation and chicken farms or goat farms will also be developed.

The project has already started in full swing in Purulia and Bankura. 10000 acres of fallow land has been identified in Bankura and work is on in six blocks in the Junglemahal areas of Bankura that includes Indpur, Hirbandh, Ranibandh, Khatra, Taldangra and Simlapal.