Emphasis on involving women farmers for seed production
Instructions to reduce the area under paddy cultivation and promote the cultivation of millets crops and pulses-oilseeds
Agriculture Production Commissioner reviewed the Kharif 2025 preparation including division level Rabi review and gave instructions for effective implementation of the action plan
Raipur, 22 April 2025
To realize the vision of developed Bastar, the agriculture sector and allied sectors play an important role. It is the axis of the overall development of Bastar. Keeping this in mind, focus on achieving the target of expansion of maize and millets crops, pulses-oilseeds crop area, expansion of spice crops area. Also, in view of the immense possibilities of organic farming in Bastar, organic farming should be encouraged more and in view of the favorable environment here, coffee and oil palm cultivation should be promoted. At the same time, initiatives should be taken on a large scale for animal husbandry and fisheries and shrimp farming. The above instructions were given by Agriculture Production Commissioner Shehla Nigar to the officials while reviewing the preparations for Kharif 2025 including the division level Rabi review held in Kondagaon. Emphasizing on ensuring effective implementation of the action plan of Kharif 2025, she instructed the collectors and other officials to review it regularly.
Agriculture Production Commissioner Shehla Nigar, while emphasizing on encouraging women farmers including Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe category farmers through seed production program by setting a target to fulfill the demand of seeds of Bastar farmers at local level, said that farmers of these categories are exempted from seed certification registration fee, hence take initiative to connect as many farmers of the said category as possible with the seed production program. They should be benefited with training along with availability of seeds and other inputs. She asked to promote the cultivation of pulses-oilseeds crops including Kodo-Kutki and Ragi millets as per the action plan to achieve the target set for reducing the area of paddy in Kharif crop season. In this direction, she gave instructions to specially encourage the cultivation of maize.
Stressing on encouraging organic farming,
the Agriculture Production Commissioner, while underlining the immense possibilities of organic farming in Bastar, said that the fertility of the land and the environment here are quite conducive for organic farming. Therefore, more and more farmers should be encouraged to take up organic farming and all possible help should be made available to them. He also declared Bastar suitable for the National Mission on Natural Farming and directed for effective implementation of the action plan prepared in this direction. The Agriculture Production Commissioner also directed for ensuring implementation on priority basis for expansion of area of different varieties within 10 years.
Bastar will become palm oil hub.
The Agriculture Production Commissioner, while emphasizing on the wide scale implementation of the action plan of National Mission on Edible Oil, said that the high land and favorable climate of Bastar are quite suitable for the cultivation of oil palm. Farmers can also do intercropping of Palma Rosa and Lemongrass along with the cultivation of oil palm. Along with this, cultivation of vegetables can also be encouraged. Therefore, to ensure the supply of edible oil in future, cultivation of oil palm should be encouraged in Bastar. In this direction, every help should be made available to them including the selection of farmers by forming clusters. He said that after adequate production of oil palm in Bastar, setting up a processing center for preparing palm oil is also proposed.
The Agriculture Production Commissioner directed the officials to ensure the availability of seeds, fertilizers and crop loans as per the demand of the farmers as per the action plan of Kharif 2025 and that the storage and distribution of seeds and fertilizers should be done as per the target. Regular inspection and investigation and action should be done compulsorily for quality control of fertilizers and seeds. He instructed the officials to regularly review the availability of fertilizers, seeds and crop loans and bring the latest progress in Kisan Credit Card. Along with this, instructions were given to focus on the provision of Kisan Credit Card for allied sectors like animal husbandry, poultry farming, pig farming, goat farming, fisheries and cultivation of horticultural crops etc. In the meeting, the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, Kisan Samridhi Yojana, Solar Sujala Yojana and electrification of irrigation pumps for the availability of minor irrigation means to the farmers under Bastar division were also reviewed.
During this, Commissioner Bastar Shri Doman Singh, while giving top priority to agricultural development in Bastar division, stressed on saturating every eligible person with various beneficiary-oriented schemes being run in agriculture and allied sectors, and instructed all officers to perform better in this direction. In the meeting, the collectors of Kanker, Dantewada, Kondagaon, Sukma, Bijapur and Narayanpur and CEO District Panchayat Bastar informed in detail about the progress of implementation of schemes of agriculture and related departments in their districts, preparation for implementation of Kharif crop program action plan, and innovations.
Director Horticulture Mr. S. Jagdishan, Director Animal Husbandry Mr. Chandrakant Verma, Director Fisheries Mr. Narayan Singh Nag along with CEO Zila Panchayat of all districts and officials of Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Water Resources departments including officials of Electricity Distribution Company, CREDA, Markfed, District Cooperative Central Bank and scientists from Indira Gandhi Agricultural University and Horticulture College were present in the meeting.
