Ministry wants states to boost output

The agriculture ministry is preparing a strategy for ending the current stagnation in wheat production. It has asked state governments also to take steps to boost output in the ensuing rabi season starting next October.

"There should be a threshold level below which the production of wheat should not be allowed to fall," agriculture secretary Radha Singh today said in the national conference on agriculture for preparing production and input supply plans for the rabi season.

Wheat occupied about 26.5 million hectare area in the country. Its production was hovering between 68 and 70 million tonne in recent years, she said.

The major reasons for low productivity of wheat included delayed planting in the areas following rice-wheat cropping sequence, low seed replacement rate, imbalanced and inadequate use of fertilisers, high cost of inputs, and depleting soil health.

She stressed the need for using quality seed for stepping up production and urged the state governments to give more thrust to seed production and distribution to farmers through the seed producing agencies.

The agriculture secretary urged states to ensure timely availability of credit to farmers. The total disbursement of agriculture credit has risen to about Rs 1,87,000 crore this year.

The government has finalised a package for the revival of short-term rural cooperative credit structure, she said.

The states have been asked to set up terminal markets at important locations to put in place an alternative competitive marketing infrastructure to provide greater choice to farmers for sale of their produce.

These markets would be linked to a number of collection centres to allow easy access to farmers for the marketing of their produce.

The conference is being attended by agriculture secretaries and agricultural production commissioners of states.