Uttar Pradesh agriculture sector calls for urgent reforms II

The outlets will be opened in Lucknow, Varanasi, Agra, Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Meerut, Aligarh, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Rampur, Faizabad, Ambedkarnagar and Basti.

While, the federation will provide the land and other infrastructure for these formats, the associated societies, self-help groups and NGOs will run them.

The outlets would stock agricultural produce, including fruits, vegetables and spices, depending upon the local productivity and output. Their USP would be to provide a variety of agricultural produce to the consumers at the right price and ambience.

Besides, to give a major boost to agriculture, the state government is planning to establish more Mandi Parishads in the state, such as the one coming up at Noida under the National Horticulture Mission, which would be dedicated to flowers.

"We want to establish dedicated mandis to different crops and agricultural produce, such as guava, amla, mango, menthe, etc," former UP Agricultural Production Commissioner (APC) Anis Ansari told Business Standard.

UP produces almost 75 per cent of the country's total mentha, he said. He further expressed confidence of a bumper paddy crop this season and a record procurement by government agencies in the state.

As far as irrigation is concerned, private tube wells/pump sets cover nearly 70 per cent of the total irrigated area. There are over 35 lakh private pump sets, while the area irrigated by canals has been steadily declining over the years.

UP is the largest producer of sugarcane and the second largest producer of sugar. The state contributes almost 45 per cent of the country's total sugarcane output.

However, the sugarcane sector has witnessed challenges on the payment front and a glut of sugar production recently to the disadvantage of the growers. There have been several litigations over the issue of sugarcane payment in the apex court, besides the Allahabad High Court.

UP farmers receive about Rs 6,000 crore annually from sugar mills and the sugarcane sector contributes roughly 20 per cent to the state gross domestic product from the agriculture sector.

Some suggestions that have been forwarded by experts for improving the agriculture sector in UP are greater investment, training of farmers, improved extention activity in agriculture, providing different farm models to farmers in different agro-climate zones, restoring soil health, using remote sensing data for increasing productivity, improving irrigation facilities, reforming agri marketing, easy availability of credit and promoting cultivation of commercial crops such as bio-fuel plants (Jatropha) to increase farmers' income from non-productive tracts of land.