Tripura mulls changing agriculture polices to double farmers’ income

The Tripura government has planned a paradigm shift in Agriculture policies in an apparent bid to meet up Prime Minister's vision of doubling farmers’ income by the year 2022.

Briefing the media, Agriculture minister Pranajit Singha Roy on June 18^th, 2020 evening said the area of priority in farming would now be shifted to Maize and Mashkalai (black legume) cultivation since these grains generate more income.

“As we are now proceeding towards an income-centric goal, the state government has planned to bring 50,000-hectare paddy lands under cash crops cultivation within three years up to 2022-23. An initiative has been taken for promoting corn cultivation in 28000-hectare land and mashkalai farming in 22,000-hectare land,” the Agriculture Minister told Media.

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Elaborating such a massive decision in the Agriculture sector, he said, “Around 55 percent of the total Agri land is now being used for paddy cultivation. But we calculated that after investing one rupee for paddy cultivation, the return is only Rs. 1.45 while the income for maize farming is Rs. 2.19 and for Mashkalai the return is Rs. 1.83.”

The Agriculture minister said all parts of maize plant are important—the main ingredient of fodder is maize. Considering all such aspects, the state government has taken the decision to encourage maize farming.

He said, “the Government has set a target to bring 12,000-hectare land under hybrid maize cultivation. The interested farmers will get financial assistance of Rs. 6000 per hectare land. The initiative will benefit around 60,000 farmers across the state.”

“The estimated production in per hectare land is 2.5 to 3.5 MT and the income for formers would be Rs. 54,298 per hectare while the income for paddy cultivation in per hectare land is only Rs. 20, 246,” the Agriculture minister added.

Meanwhile, efforts are on to cultivate high-quality mashkalai in 10,500-hectare land in 2020-21. The farmers would be given assistance of Rs. 9000 including seed, fertilizer and cash. This initiative is expected to benefit around 50,146 farmers. The estimated average production in one-hectare land is 1.20 to 1.50 MT and the farmers may earn up to Rs. 34,810

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