At a time when Shivraj Singh Chouhan government is claiming to have prepared a roadmap to double farmers' income by 2022, the agriculture production in Madhya Pradesh has recorded a dip in 2017-18 compared to the previous year, as per the state economic survey.
Notably, Madhya Pradesh has been a recipient of the Krishi Karman Award for five successive years for the record agriculture production.
The state government today released the Economic Survey 2017-18 data on the eve of presentation of the Budget 2018-19.
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In 2017-18, the state recorded agriculture production to the tune of 42,136,000 metric tonne (provisional data), which is 2,334,000 MT less than the 2016-17 figure of 44,470,000 metric tonne (MT).
The crop sowing area also shrunk by 599,000 hectares in year 2017-18 compared to the previous year.
"In year 2016-17, the sowing area was 17,543,000 hectares which has been reduced to 16,944,000 hectares in 2017-18," it said.
The survey said the agriculture sector was mainly dependent on the monsoon and that the production has been increasing in the districts where the irrigation facilities are adequate.
While the agriculture production has registered a drop, the per capital income in the state increased by 9.06 per cent in 2017-18 compared to the previous year. The per capita income has increased to Rs 79,907 in 2017-18 from Rs 73,268 in 2016-17, as per the Survey.
Citing the data, Madhya Pradesh unit Congress president Arun Yadav said the government only made tall claims on the agriculture front.
"The state government received awards for agriculture production only due to jugglery of data. The farm sector in the state is in bad shape in absence of facilities including irrigation. The debt-ridden farmers have been committing suicides. No relief has been provided so far to the calamity-hit farmers," Yadav alleged.
State BJP spokesman Deepak Vijayvargiya, however, attributed the dip in the agri production to adverse climate during this year.
"The focus of the Budget would be to expand irrigation facilities. This year's drop was registered due to adverse climate," said the BJP leader.
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