Rs 834 cr allocated to increase pulses production

The government has allocated Rs 834 crores of total earmarked Rs 1,720 crore for National Food Security Mission (NFSM) to increase production of pulses, parliament was told on Tuesday.

An amount of Rs 169 crores has been released so far to states for implementation of the pulses programme, Minister of State for Agriculture S. S. Ahluwalia told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

"In order to create awareness among the farming community with regard to cultivation of pulses, Government of India has been taking steps like organisation of cluster, cropping system based demonstrations on latest crop production technology, cropping system based training, through state governments and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)," he said.

Besides, seed production of pulses through seed-hubs has also been taken up by ICAR Institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, State Agricultural Universities, he added.--IANS

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