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After registering nearly 20 per cent growth during year 2011-12, Madhya Pradesh has once again claimed to have achieved an higher agriculture growth among all Indian states. Though the growth figures slipped from 18.91 per cent to 13.33 per cent the total foodgrain production rose to 23.1 million metric tonne in 2012-13 against 20.3 million metric tonne in 2011-12.
“The state has outsmarted even Haryana and now stands third after Punjab and Uttar Pradesh in per hectare yield,” a government spokesperson said.
“Madhya Pradesh has contributed nearly 9.5 per cent to the total 255.36 million metric tonne food grain production of the country," he added
The growth has come after intensive agriculture extension programmes, motivational programmes, training to farmers on using modern farm techniques, as a result arable land area has increased considerably over the years; from 19.66 million hectare in 2008-09 to 22.3 million hectare now.
State cultivated the handsome growth figures from two main high return crops; gram and pulses that catapulted the state on top slot with gram production reached 3.19 million metric tonne and other pulses at 4.69 million metric tonne respectively.
Two main factors fed the growth engine of the farm sector; zero percent loan to farmers and creation of additional irrigation facilities.
“Our farm lending at zero percent touched Rs 10,800 crore last year and it will reach Rs 12,000 crore this year,” the spokesperson said adding,“ for the last six years endless efforts have created additional irrigation facility on an acreage of 726,000 hectare, another record among Indian states. Besides, timely availability of fertilizers and seeds helped farmers pare their input cost by Rs 300 crore.”
Two farmers had last year begged president’s Krishi Karman award for reporting highest farm output in wheat and gram that touched 74 quintal from a hectare of land.
State initiated efforts to make farming a profitable business few years ago by creating separate cabinet meeting for agriculture to chalk out strategy for its two main kharif and rabi crops namely Soya and wheat respectively.
According to third forecast of the revenue department released recently, state is likely to post 16 million tonne of wheat and 8.4 million tonne of soya this year.
Soybean arrivals more than double in one week
Soybean arrivals in have shown substantial increase in Madhya Pradesh as it has more than doubled this week compared to previous week, said traders. “We witnessed arrival of around 115,000 bags of 100 kg each in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday which was just 40,000 bags a week ago,” said P Goyal a soybean trader in Indore mandi. At Indore mandi, farmers delivered around 7,500 bags of 100 kg each against 3,000 bags a week ago, said mandi officials. Traders feel farmers generally offload their inventories before sowing ends and also they want to get the price benefit. Farmers feel soybean prices may be below current levels in the coming days as the state has witnessed early sowing this year and crop prospects are good.
At present, soybean is being auctioned in Indore mandi at Rs 3,750-3,825 per 100 kg and plant delivery prices were Rs 3,850-3,950 per 100 kg. Soybean prices showed good gains in the previous days due to strong US dollar against the Indian rupee, claim traders. According to them, strong dollar means better realisation from soymeal exports and expensive soyoil imports. India is one of the leading soymeal exporters to the southeast Asian countries and also among leading importers of vegetable oils in the world. Domestic factors like increased supplies may put further pressure on prices, said traders.
