The Union Territory Government has constituted a Task Force for Agriculture Development to address the region specific problems in the sector.
Lieutenant-Governor A.K. Singh accorded approval for the proposal. Agriculture Secretary Mihir Vardhan will be the Chairman of the committee which will have six other members.
Central Task Force constituted
National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog of Government of India which replaces the Planning Commission, in its first Governing Council meeting held on March 16 constituted a Central Task Force on Agriculture Development under the Chairmanship of the Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog.
Further, the Union Government has suggested to the State/Union Territory Governments to constitute a Task Force on Agriculture Development to address the region specific problems of potential levels in agriculture.
The Director of Agriculture, the Director of Animal Husbandry and Director of Fisheries and Fishermen Welfare and three others are the members to the task force.
As per the terms of reference, the task force should co-ordinate and to recommend strategies to the Central Task Force for revitalising agriculture in Puducherry Union Territory.
Strategies
The task force will formulate strategies for reforms, innovation and technology diffusion in respect of bio-technology, post harvest technology, integrated farming, multiple livelihood opportunities, organic farming and ecological safety.
The task force was assigned the work of identifying strategies for reduction of land degradation and improvement of sodic soils (gypsum application, tolerance crops, application of extra nitrogen, zinc nutrition, growing fodder crops, grass and afforestation).
It will devise strategies for export oriented agricultural development and any other measures.
Official sources added that the task force would ensure that the report on the strategies recommended by the task force are submitted to the Central Task Force within two weeks after its notification.
Puducherry has been performing well on a range of agriculture-related parameters such as aggregate contribution to State Domestic Product, size of cultivable area under paddy and sugarcane, status of cash crop cultivation and best agricultural practices in mechanisation, pest and disease management.
For instance, paddy yield has risen from 4.5 to 5 tonnes per ha about three years ago to 6 to 6.5 tonnes per ha now. The mill average yield from sugarcane of about 39 tonnes per acre was well above the national average of about 33 tonnes.
Pioneer
Puducherry is also seen as a pioneer in end-to-end farm mechanisation from field preparation through to harvest for its major crops. Farmers are encouraged to use organic pesticides as much as they can and resort to chemical pesticides only as the last line of defence as part of propagating Best Practices among ryots.
The UT currently has about 26,000 ha of gross area under paddy cultivation, about 3,000 ha under sugarcane, 200 ha under banana crops and 400 ha under vegetable cultivation.
