State govt to help maize cultivators with machinery

Kolkata: With manifold increase in maize cultivation in the state, the Mamata Banerjee government will help farmers get machineries at a subsidised rate for husking of corn.

There are many districts in the state where maize cultivation has gone up and it includes North Bengal districts. In South Bengal, there are many places where the cultivation of the corn has increased.

It may be mentioned that in 2010-11 there was cultivation of around 3.52 lakh metric tonne of maize and it has gone up to 13.34 lakh metric tonne in 2017-18.

In such a situation, the state government has developed a machine that will ensure easy husking of corn out of maize.

Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya has developed a machine that will be of great help to maize cultivators.

Asish Banerjee, the state Agriculture minister, said: "Custom hiring centres have also been set up at Kandi sub-division in Murshidabad from where farmers can hire all sorts of tools and machineries required for farming. They can also buy the same at a subsidized rate. One of the custom hiring centres has come up at a cost of Rs 2 crore while the other one was developed at Rs 68 lakh."