Ranchi, Apr 25: Jharkhand Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma directed the officials of the agriculture department to set up an IT cell to monitor the execution of the schemes of the agriculture department and also ensure GIS mapping of the complete schemes.
Reviewing the functioning of the agriculture department here she said that plans should be framed soon for doubling the income of the farmers and all the schemes be connected with IT so that they can be monitored.
The Chief Secretary directed that farmers should be linked with the Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme by May 30 and as per target daily monitoring of work at the block level be done. She said that the department should prepare an App to link with PMFBY so that the beneficiaries are easily connected. It was decided that 25 lakh farmers would be connected with the crop insurance scheme.
The Chief Secretary said that soil examination should be done in villages on a mission mode and task of collecting the samples be completed by June 15. She said that for the current fiscal a target has been set to examine 2 lakh samples and to carryout the task a proposal to purchase 3,500 new soil examination machines would be brought before the cabinet. She said that so far 1200 machines have been purchased out of which 605 have been sent to various districts while remaining would be sent by the end of this month. She also asked the officials to make that the farmers are given the soil health card before the sowing season.
Ms Verma directed that construction of ponds at the spots which have been identified should commence soon. She said that a target has been set to build 200 new ponds in 2017-18 and in the focus area panchayats at least 2-3 ponds would be built and complete ponds photographs be uploaded on the site. She said that as per the availability of land ponds be built in Krishi Vigyan Kendra so that it can also help in seed production.
The Chief Secretary said that this year in 516 ‘Beej Gram’ a total of 3 lakh quintals of seeds have been produced and there was a need to work with more speed to purchase the seeds from the farmers. She said to ensure the reach of fertilisers among the farmers the lampx/pax be converted into wholesale dealers and the Krishal Mitras and ARYA should be trained as retail shopkeepers for fertilisers.
The Chief Secretary asked the officials to make plans so that in the entire state the vacant land can be used for agriculture needs and said to accord priority to pulses cultivation in the vacant land along with maize. The officials of the department said that there was 6 lakh hectares of land which can be used for agriculture and due to the efforts of the department 1.88 lakh hectares of land has been brought under agriculture ambit. The Chief Secretary said that in 2017-18 in every district additional 25 beej grams be formed so that the seed producing capacity can be doubled.