Agri profit can increase via planning, diversification:ICAR DG

Farmers should diversify, go in for crop planning and shift to newer and better produce to maximise profit in agriculture, ICAR Director General Trilochan Mohapatra has said.
Mohapatra cited the case of farmers in Gujarat who had shown how better crop planning and diversification have led to increased profits.
He was speaking at the release of a book authored by Bibhuti Bhushan Bareek, former director of Baikunth Mehta National Institute of Cooperative Management, here yesterday.
The key to maximising profit in agriculture, according to Mohapatra, is crop planning, diversification and switch to newer and better produce.
The Union government is keen to help double farmers' income by 2022. This is possible if farmers opt for diversity and crop planning in a scientific manner, he stressed.

The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) director general (DG) said the survey in the book proved that the kisan credit card scheme has benefited farmers. Agriculture scientists should motivate cultivators to adopt better techniques, practices and link their activities with marketing networks and storage facilities available.

The book, titled 'Productivity and Income enhancement through Kisan Credit Card scheme', focuses on the programme's salient features.
Bareek told PTI: "The study is based on the empirical research covering the region of western UP, examining in detail the impact of KCC scheme by comparing the KCC and non- KCC farmers across economic and social categories..."

One of the suggestions made in the book is that farm advisory services should be linked to KCC loans to achieve efficiency in production of crops and assignment of annual targets for financing minimum number of KCC borrowers. It also suggested disbursal of credit for public and private banks in rural areas for successive years and till its saturation.