kolkata: The Agriculture growth rate in Bengal till the financial year 2020-21 since 2010-11 is better than most states in the country, as per the agriculture statistics presented by the Centre, state Agriculture Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said at the state assembly on Wednesday.
He also maintained that the supply of fertiliser from the Centre for the financial year 2021-22 has also been less than the allocation.
In the case of paddy, Bengal's growth rate is 1.884 per cent while that of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab is 1.694 and 1.849 per cent respectively. In maize also, Bengal's growth rate is 23.64 per cent which is much higher than Madhya Pradesh's 15.93 per cent, Karnataka's 0.94 per cent and Telengana's 0.03 per cent. "We have made significant progress in the production of pulses (dal) and have marched ahead of states like Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Our growth rate is 11.46 per cent while that of Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are 6.43, 4.48 and 3.73 per cent respectively," Chattopadhyay said.
Bengal is also ahead of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab in the growth rate of overall food grains.
The state's growth rate is 2.81 per cent against Uttar Pradesh's 1.82 and Punjab's 1.05 per cent.
The minister pointed out that the allocation of fertiliser for the 2021-22 Kharif season was 15.8 lakh metric tonnes (MT), however, the supply was 11.29 lakh MT.
The state has used 32.72 lakh MT of chemical fertiliser and 161.65 lakh MT of organic fertiliser for agriculture in the 2021- 22 fiscal, Chattopadhyay said in reply to a query by Trinamool Congress MLA Apurba Sarkar of Kandi, Murshidabad.