Centre sanctions Rs 20 cr for Bengal's Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidalaya

The Centre has taken a national program to electronically connect all mandis of the country for e-trading that will enable better price discovery, Union Agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh today said.

Some 470 such mandis are connected or are in the process of being connected. But 17 proposals from West Bengal were lying idle as reforms suggested by the Centre were not adopted by the state, he said addressing the 117 th AGM of Bharat Chamber of Commerce said.

“Development of eastern region is important if we want a healthy country and growth of industry was interlinked to agriculture and farmers development,” he said adding the Centre has sanctioned Rs 20 crore for the state agricultural university Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidalaya (BCKV).

E-NAM (National Agriculture Market) is a pan-India an electronic trading portal which networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market.

Andhra Pradesh, Gurajat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Punjab, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Nagaland, Haryana and Chandigarh has undertaken Agriculure Produce Market Committee reforms.

Singh said, 10 crore soil heath cards had been issued among 12 crore farmers of the country. Soil health card is an important project for sustainable farm management and the same has resulted in 8-10 per cent saving in urea use by farmers.

He called for diversification by farmers to ramp up their income. Besides normal farming they should also look into other activities like fisheries, dairy and growing trees to increase their income.

“We have asked the state to permit to grow and cut 20 varieties of trees that will help to increase their income,” Singh added.