Govt to encourage farmers to take up cultivation of pulses

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 22

To increase self reliance of the state in the area of availability of agriculture produce, the Department of Agriculture has decided to encourage the farmers to include pulses and commercial crops in the cultivation expansion programme under the fully funded National Food Security (NFS) Mission of the Central Government.

While briefing media persons today after the executive council meeting of NFS, Director, Agriculture, CS Mehra, said: “Though we are self-reliant in wheat and rice, under the NFS programmes apart from cereals, farmers are being encouraged to grow pulses and also adopt commercial crops, including sugarcane,” he said.

He said that the target would be achieved by encouraging farmers to adopt hybrid seeds, irrigation facilities and use of bio-fertilisers,” he added.

He said that since the launch of the NFS mission in 2012, the state has witnessed a rapid increase in the expansion of area under cereals (wheat and rice and hill cereals) in both the hills and the plain areas.

“But since the inception of the state, the area under agriculture has reduced in both the hills and plain areas. Under the NFS mission there has been an improvement in the production of wheat and rice. In 2009 -2010 the production of wheat and rice was 20.39 quintal/hectare and 22.24 quintal per hectare, respectively, whereas in 2013-2014 it stands at 24.0 quintal per hectare and 25.34 quintal per hectare, respectively,” said Mehra.