Chhattisgarh gets award for producing 28.68% more crops than last year

New Delhi: Chhattisgarh with 43 per cent out of 2.10 crore population being below poverty line has received the award for being at the top most state in the country in the field of foodgrain production.The state received the award for producing 28.68 per cent more crops than the last year.

Chhattisgarh agriculture minister Brij Mohan Agrawal received the award from the Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh.

Agrawal said that this was made possible by the government efforts of quick development of irrigation facilities in the state, focus on production of better and high quality paddy and better production of corn crop in the state.

He further said that production of crops in the state after its formation has almost doubled and productivity has increased more than double so far.

Rice production in the state has increased 39 per cent from year 2003-04 to year 2013-14, which is far better than the two per cent increase during the period at national level.

The minister said that foodgrain production in Chhattisgarh in the year 2016-17 was 9.32 lakh tonne, which is almost 2 lakh tonne more than the average production in last five years. He added that the total increase in production as compared to last five years average production was 26.68 per cent.

He further said that total crop production in the state also includes the high yield in the corn crop. In 2015, corn crop production was 1.6 lakh tonnes, which has increase by 16 per cent to 1.89 lakh tonne.

The state agriculture minister said that in the field of foodgrain production in the last 15 years Chhattisgarh has registered a growth of 48 per cent in rice, 148 per cent in wheat, 60 per cent in total crops, 43 per cent in total pulses production, 58 per cent in total foodgrain production and 158 per cent increase in 'tilhan'.

Providing further details, he said that the state has been producing almost 10 lakh quintal of seeds at present which was 45 thousand quintal seeds in the year 2003.