Depleting water table and worsening soil health in key food grain growers Punjab and Haryana have prompted agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to explore possibilities of introducing alternative crops such as pulses, oilseeds, fodder crops and horticultural crops in these states.
"Pawar will hold a meeting with the state governments in the third week of September to consider various aspects relating to the proposed crop substitution including suitability of different alternative crops and their impact of water and soil resources, cost of production, and marketing and processing of the alternative crops," said an official.
The decision was taken at parliamentary consultative committee meeting which also discussed raising agricultural production and productivity in eastern India by harnessing the ample water resource available there and injecting new technologies.
Pawar said that that due to various interventions the rice production in Bihar and Jharkhand had more than doubled last year over the previous year.
"Except for Odisha and Assam, which were affected by flood/drought, rice production has increased in all the States where this programme is being implemented. A record production of 55.3 million tonne of rice has been achieved by the eastern region out of total rice production of 104.32 million tonne during 2011-12," he said.
The government has already launched a programme named 'Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India' in 2010-11 in eastern region of the country to raise agricultural production with an allocation of Rs. 400 crore for the first two years. It has now increased the outlay to Rs 1000 crore for the current financial year.
"Pawar will hold a meeting with the state governments in the third week of September to consider various aspects relating to the proposed crop substitution including suitability of different alternative crops and their impact of water and soil resources, cost of production, and marketing and processing of the alternative crops," said an official.
The decision was taken at parliamentary consultative committee meeting which also discussed raising agricultural production and productivity in eastern India by harnessing the ample water resource available there and injecting new technologies.
Pawar said that that due to various interventions the rice production in Bihar and Jharkhand had more than doubled last year over the previous year.
"Except for Odisha and Assam, which were affected by flood/drought, rice production has increased in all the States where this programme is being implemented. A record production of 55.3 million tonne of rice has been achieved by the eastern region out of total rice production of 104.32 million tonne during 2011-12," he said.
The government has already launched a programme named 'Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India' in 2010-11 in eastern region of the country to raise agricultural production with an allocation of Rs. 400 crore for the first two years. It has now increased the outlay to Rs 1000 crore for the current financial year.
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