Gujarat for40% hike in benefits to agriculture

Gujarat claims that the Krishi Mahotsavs of the last two years have resulted in the monetary benefits worth Rs 7,108.58 crore to the state's agricultural sector. The government claims that this year's Krishi Mahotsav will result in 40 per cent growth in this monetary benefits as compared to last year.

The government's claims are based on a recent survey by the four agriculture universities of the sate. This year the government plans to pay extra attention to sectors like fisheries, awareness programmes on value addition and animal husbandary.

The government might be happy with these results but officials of three major departments under the agricultural ministry, namely, Department of Agriculture, Department of Horticulture and the Department of fisheries and Animal Husbandary, are not so happy.

The reason is that this one month they will be overworking for the Krishi Mahotsav. From April 20 the officials will embark on the gigantic task of holding thousands of meetings in the state, district, taluk and village levels and keep at it till the culmination of the Krishi Mahotsav on May 19.

Four agricultural universities of the state, namely, Dantiwada, Anand, Navsari and Junagadh Agri Universities, carried out a survey on how much the Krishi Mahotsav has benefitted the state agriculture sector in terms of money.

The survey show that because of the activities in the state during the Krishi Mahotsav the state's agri sector was benefitted with Rs 3,231.08 crore in 2005. This includes Rs 297. 54 crore from Patan, Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Banaskantha, Gandhinagar and Kutch districts.

Agri sector of southern districts like Valsad, Navasari, Dang, Surat, Bharuch and Narmada gained Rs 1,096.04 crore. Districts like Kheda, Anand, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Godhra and Dahod got monetory benefits worth Rs 810.80 crore.

While the districts of Saurashtra region like Surendranagar, Rajkot, Porbandar, Junagadh, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar and Amreli collectively benefitted Rs 1,026.70 crore from the various activities during the Krishi Mahotsav.

The government claims that Krishi Mahotsav 2006 brought monitory benefits worth Rs 3,877.50 crore to the farmers of the state. Out of this farmers belonging to the districts like Patan, Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Banaskantha, Gandhinagar and Kutch benefitted Rs 354.58 crore, while farmers from Valsad, Navsari, Dang, Surat, Bharuch and Narmada districts got monetory benefits worth Rs 801.71 crore.

The farmers of Kheda, Ahmedabad, Anand, Vadodara, Godhra and Dahod districts benefitted Rs 1,383.06 crore from Krishi Mahotsav and Saurashtra districts like Surendranagar, Rajkot, Porbandar, Junagadh, Jamnagar, Amreli and Bhavnagar managed to get the monetary benefits worth Rs 1,367.01 crore. In all, as per the government claims, the state's farmers got monetary benefits of Rs 7,108.58 crore in the last two years.

According to officials of the Agriculture ministry this year they expect a growth of over 40 per cent in this benefits.

However, the farmers may or may not have got the claimed benefits but the officials of agriculture, horticulture departments at taluk level, district level and state level, are sure not so happy because of the long working hours and hectic schedules this month.

The state government has scheduled thousands of meetings and awareness programmes across the state and for that the government officials from class three level to IAS level will have to travel extensively throughout the state. The biggest problem the officials are facing is the scorching heat of April -May.

An official of Junagadh agriculture department office told Business Standard on the promise of anonymity, "The government resolution circulated throughout the state offices asks the officials to conduct a series of awareness programmes and that means we have to go out n the field. However, the timing of the Krishi Mahotsav is the biggest problem as the temperatures soar around 45 degrees at this period of time and it becomes very difficult for us to go out in the field.