Government’s programme of Bringing Green Revolution in Eastern India has been a major success for last two years. The programme is operational in seven eastern States of Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh (East) and West Bengal since 2010-11.
The objective of the programme is to increase the productivity of rice based cropping system by promotion of recommended agricultural technologies by addressing the underlying key constraints of different agro- climatic sub regions. The programme is operationalized in 105 districts of above eastern States, including 96 districts for rice and 29 districts for wheat.
Eastern India with 2-3 times more rainfall compared to the Northwest States, unexploited good quality ground water aquifers, and vast resources of social capital have relative advantage for sustainable production of rice, banana, sugarcane and aquaculture. The agricultural productivity in this region was comparatively low in spite of the adequate availability of natural resources required for higher production. The scheme has widely helped these states in increasing production of rice and wheat in last two years.
A bouquet of activities have been taken up under this scheme such as block demonstrations of rice & wheat technologies in cluster mode approach; promoting resource conservation technology (zero tillage under wheat); creation of asset building activities for water management (shallow tube wells/dug wells/bore wells, distribution of pump sets); promotion of farm implements and need based site specific activities.
Hon’ble Minister of State for Agriculture & Food Processing Industries Shri Harish Rawat informed the Rajya Sabha (May 9, 2012) that the allocated budget for the scheme has been increased to Rs 1,000 crore this year. The government had earlier allocated an additional Rs 400 crore in 2011-12 under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana for extending green revolution to the eastern region comprising Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Eastern UP, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal. Rice was a priority crop under the scheme.
The State-wise allocations proposed for the year 2012-13 are as under:
State
|
Proposed Outlay (Rs. in crore)
|
Assam
|
95.50
|
Bihar
|
119.25
|
Chhattisgarh
|
131.50
|
Jharkhand
|
59.00
|
Odisha
|
217.25
|
Uttar Pradesh (East)
|
105.50
|
West Bengal
|
269.00
|
Total of Seven States
|
997.00
|
Monitoring & other Administrative expenses at GOI level
|
3.00
|
Grand Total
|
1000.00
|
Crystal believes that in view of the increasing population of the country, the Green Revolution in Eastern States can play a vital role in securing food supply and benefitting the farmers of the country. We are with the Government in all its endeavors.
