MP tops due to its successful agriculture policy
Farmer Welfare, Agriculture Development and Cooperative Minister Gopal Bhargava said that the state government has made unique efforts in agriculture and cooperative sector in last four years and this is the result of the same that today Madhya Pradesh tops among the other states in the country in agriculture production whereas cooperative institutions and firms have come up from losses of worth crores of rupees and now helping the farmers. Bhargava was answering in Vidhan Sabha today on the supplementary demands of his department. He told that gram production is 937kg per hectare whereas national production average is 808kg per hectare. Our state ranks number one in the country. Similarly, in soyabean production the contribution of our state is 54.41 per cent. In pulses crop production the state's contribution is 24.14 per cent and in oil crop production its contribution is 20.44 per cent. In this way Madhya Pradesh is such a country in agriculture sector which has emerged number one in overall crop production in the country. He said that the state has secured remarkable achievement in wheat production. In the year 1997-98 where the wheat production was 1655kg per hectare now with the efforts of state government it has reached up to 2 thousand kg per hectare. Government of India has proved this achievement of the state. Similarly the state has secured achievement in providing advanced seeds to the farmers. The farmers could only get 4.77 lakh quintal advanced seeds in the year 1997-98 whereas today they are being given 11 lakh 57 thousand quintal advanced seeds. Talking about sugarcane production, Bhargava said that sugarcane crop production has increased due to the agriculture policy of state government. He said that Kisan Mahapanchayat was organised and first time the farmers were given waiving and assisting facilities worth Rs 5 thousand 7 hundred crore which is a historical initiative of the government in favour of farmers. He said that Apex Bank is in profit of Rs 31.42 crore this year. It was awarded as cooperative institution in the whole country. The farmers who were only distributed agriculture loan of Rs 1273 crore in the year 2003-04 now has been increased up to Rs 3 thousand crore in the year 2008-09. In the year 2008-09 the state government has set target to provide Rs 4.5 thousand crore as agriculture loan. He said that the farmers earlier used to receive roan on 18 to14, 14to 7 per cent and now the state government has made arrangement to provide loan on 5 per cent rate of interest. In this connection at around 32 lakh farmers would get the benefit of this provision.