The government is mulling extending a Rs 27,000 crore package to Bihar for the upgradation of the state?s agriculture sector and developing the state as the food granary of the country. The move can be seen as the UPA government?s gesture to keep railway minister Lalu Prasad and his Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in good humour ahead of the general elections.
The special cell set up in the Planning Commission, under Satish C Jha, is working on the proposal. Jha told FE that the Commission is working out the details as to how much the Centre would contribute of the total package.
The state government is already in talks with international agencies like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to contribute part of the package aimed at promoting the entire agriculture sector in the state including horticulture, poultry and fishery, he said.
?A kind of food grain production fatigue has set in in Punjab and Haryana due to several reasons like loss of soil nutrient and water issues in these states. Also, India?s food grain needs cannot be met by just few states. Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal and Assam have a lot of potential for food grain production. The idea is to develop Bihar as the food granary for the country,? Jha said.
As per the proposal prepared by the special cell for the development of the sector in the state, the state would take up organic farming in a big way and would ensure proper use of fertilisers to maintain soil nutrients. The research institutes in the sector would focus more on hybrid seeds. Stress has been laid on making credit easily available to the farmers and strengthening the extension services.
Bihar at present produces around 1.5 metric tonne per hectare of grain on an average. Jha hopes that once the state adopts the suggestions made by the cell, the state’s production would go up to at least 4 metric tonne per hectare and add 2-3 million tonnes of extra grain.
The Commission is also looking at setting up a special development fund for Bihar that would look at the overall infrastructure and socio-economic development of the state.