Ranchi, Sep 13: Jharkhand’s Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Minister Randhir Kumar Singh said that Jharkhand was the first state to establish a single window system for agriculture where the farmers can get all the needed information at a single stop.
Addressing a press conference at the Suchana Bhawan here he said that in the year 2016-17 a total of 100 single window centers were approved out of which 78 are functional while another 100 such centers have been approved for 2017-18.
The minister said that during fiscal cultivation was done on 22.65 lakh hectares of land which has increased to 30 lakh hectares a jump of 32 per cent while the food grains production has moved up from 51.12 lakh metric tones to 68.82 lakh metric tones. Similarly production has also increased for pulses and oilseeds.
He said that 8898 metric tones of fertilizers was distributed among the farmers while Jharkhand is the first state in the country which has distributed 7.95 lakh soail health cards among the farmers. He said that to speed among speed distribution the government has set up Jharkhand State Seeds Corporation.
He said that to solve the problems of the farmers Chief Minister Farmers Helpline has been set up on April 22, 2017 which was working to solve the problems of the farmers. He said that under Birsa Agriculture University five new colleges have been set up in which classes has commenced from 2017-18. He said that 151 rural agricultural equipments bank have also been set up in the state where farmers can get the equipments on rent.
Mr Singh said that if the farmers return back the loan in stipulated time frame than instead of 7 per cent they would only be asked to pay 0ne per cent interest. He said that to improve the irrigation facility 2319 ponds have been renovated while 852 small ponds and 675 deep boring has been done which has created additional irrigation facilities for 1527 hectares of land.
Elaborating the achievements of the animal husbandry department he said that during fiscal 2014-15 the milk production in the state was 38 lakh liter which increased to 54 lakh liter in 2016-17. He said that a modern dairy plant having one lakh liter capacity has been set up in Hotwar while work was on to set upto 50,000 liter of dairy plants in Sahibganj, Deoghar and Palamu. He said that a pea processing plant has been set up in collaboration with Mother Dairy in Nagri. He said that 8000 sakhi mandals are working in the area of poultry, pig rearing and goat rearing.