The Hindu : Front Page : 100 farm villages planned this year

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Wednesday, May 28, 2008
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100 farm villages planned this year

Special Correspondent

These will be centres for production and marketing of produce

Mullakara Ratnakaran says land should not be left fallow.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government will establish 100 farm villages in the State this year to mark the centenary of the Agriculture Department, Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran has said.

At a function to inaugurate the centenary celebrations here on Tuesday, he said the villages would be developed as integrated centres for production and marketing of farm produce to augment the incomes of farmers and provide a fillip to the State government’s efforts to make Kerala self-sufficient in vegetables and foodgrains.

Mr. Ratnakaran said the government would construct a ‘Karshaka Bhavan’ in the State capital where farmers from across the State could stay paying low rents. The foundation stone would be laid on August 17 and work on the building would be completed within a year.

The government, he said, also proposes to organise an international agricultural fair in the State capital to expose farmers in the State to the latest developments in the farm sector in the world and to educate them about the need for scientific cultivation with emphasis on achieving a higher productivity.

The Minister called upon officers of the Agriculture Department to re-orient themselves so that their services became available to the farmers. The practice of leaving land fallow could not be ended merely with laws. There was the need for a campaign to save farmlands from falling into the hands of the land mafia. Around 35,000 acres of fallow land needed to be cultivated if the State was to solve a part of its foodgrain shortage, he said. Earlier, inaugurating the function, Food Minister C. Divakaran said the State’s problem was low productivity. It had erred in opting for cash crops on a large scale. Efforts should be made to bring back farmers to the cultivation of foodgrains, he said.

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