'Agri road map to boost farm sector in Bihar'

The Bihar government today exuded confidence that the ambitious agriculture road map would boost growth rate in the farm sector and ensure prosperity and income to the rural people of the state.
Replying to a debate on the department budget of Rs 2650.19 crore for 2013-14, Agriculture minister Narendra Singh said the state government has launched the agriculture road map for five years (2012-17).
Launched by President Pranab Mukherjee last year, the agriculture road map formulated various schemes spanning over 16 departments to promote agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries and related segments for putting in place infrastructure and marketing of farm produces, Singh said.

It has been proposed to provide various incentives and technical assistance to the farmers to enable them to increase yield even as storage capacity of foodgrains was being augmented in both public and private sectors, Singh said.
The House later passed the budget of the Agriculture department by voice vote after Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary put the motion for voting by the members.
Earlier, the opposition flayed the state government for "unimpressive" growth rate of farm sector during the NDA rule and accused it of failing to put in place irrigation infrastructure to boost the core economic sector in Bihar.

The opposition members also charged the state government with fudging data to claim high yield of various crops like potato and paddy without verification by scientists or authorised agencies.