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The Agriculture Secretary, Smt. Radha Singh has called for determined efforts to bring additional areas under coverage during the ensuing Rabi season to make up for shorfalls during the Kharif season. She was inaugurating the two-day National Conference on Agriculture for Rabi Campaign, 2004-05 here today. She said that as per assessment made on the 13th of this month, the area sown under Kharif was 957 lakh hectares as compared to 1016 lakh hectares during the corresponding period last year. Thus, there was a shortfall of 59 lakh hectares. Much of this shortfall is confined to areas under coarse cereals and pulses, mainly in Rajasthan. Large areas there were left un-sown due to deficient rainfall. Despite early showers during the current Kharif season, there were several weeks of intense dryness and rain deficiency in several States of the country. To a large extent, this was made up during the last week of July and in August, but this had its net impact on the net area sown. In many instances, areas sown following the earlier showers were reportedly damaged due to the long dry spell and had to be re-sown . In some cases, this had to be done three times over and also, alternative crops had to be sown.
The Agriculture Secretary said that as Kharif production is likely to suffer, there is a need to increase the production of Rabi crops. She said that a significant surge in the sale of fertilizers was experienced during the Kharif season. The Government is making all efforts to ensure that there is adequate availability of urea during the Rabi season. Smt. Radha Singh informed the gathering that realizing the importance of extension support for agricultural production, the Agriculture Ministry proposes to cover 252 districts under the National Agricultural Technology Programme. Emphasizing the need for developing the infrastructure required for agricultural marketing, Smt. Radha Singh said that as per rough estimates, an investment of about 11,000 crore rupees is required for the purpose. It is expected that a major portion of this would be mobilized through private investment. Highlighting the inadequacies of the on-going insurance schemes for the farm sector, she said that the Ministry is seriously engaged in bringing an improved insurance and risk management scheme for farmers which would be a multi-product cover aimed at providing comprehensive coverage to farmers.
In his speech on the occasion, the Animal Husbandry Secretary, Shri P.M.A. Hakeem called for bridging the gap between the demand and the availability of fodder. He said that appropriate land use planning would be required for the purpose and fodder would have to be grown on land most suitable for doing so. Incentives will also have to be given to farmers for taking up fodder production.
In his speech, the Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Dr. Mangla Rai stressed the need for evolving long-term strategies to boost agricultural production and productivity. He said that a lot needs to be done for increasing the input use efficiency which is currently very low.
The Rabi Conference is an important forum for discussing the performance of the Kharif season and for finalizing ways of increasing agricultural production and productivity in the Rabi season. The conference is deliberating upon a number of areas of concern including agricultural research and education, agriculture production availability of agricultural inputs including credit, drought management, integrated nutrients and fertilizer management, extension services, health of cooperatives and agricultural marketing. It is being attended among others by State Agriculture and Horticulture Secretaries, Vice Chancellors of Agricultural Universities, Heads of Indian Council of Agricultural Research institutes and senior officers from various Central Departments.
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