Realising the gravity of the agrarian situation after two back-to-back droughts, the Union government is all set to formulate a crop production strategy for the coming summer (kharif) season to ensure that the plan to double farmers’ income in the next six years gains momentum.
A national conference on kharif campaign is being held in New Delhi on April 11 and 12 in which senior officials of agriculture and allied sectors from the Centre and States would review the performance of the preceding crop season and formulate a crop production strategy for kharif.
The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare, which is organising the conference, said in a statement that kharif campaign-2016 assumes great importance in view of the recent crop damage on account of moisture stress due to deficit, and uneven and untimely rains, hailstorm and other natural calamities across various States.
Notably, the south-west monsoon during the previous kharif season was weak leading to a rain deficit of 14 per cent. Also, the rabi 2015-16 season had experienced less post-monsoon and winter rains.
