Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has urged the eastern states to submit proposals to increase agricultural productivity and benefit from the funds allocated for the purpose. He stated that the eastern states had a lot of unexploited potential (as compared to the north western states) in terms of greater rainfall and good quality ground water aquifers which were sustainable for the production of rice, banana, sugarcane and aquaculture. However the agricultural productivity in the region was dismally low. Hence he urged state governments to make efforts to increase the crop productivity by intensive cultivation through promotion of suitable agricultural technologies and practices.
Reiterating the Central government’s willingness to back such initiatives, he said that the Government had allotted funds for the states in its Union Budget but the state governments had not utilized them properly. He further stated that since the onus of the implementation of such projects lay with the state governments they should submit appropriate proposals and benefit from it.
The Union government in its Budget had allocated Rs 300 crore in the first year (2010-11) and another Rs 300 crore in the second year (2012) under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana scheme. He said price difference between farm grains and edible grains had to be minimised in order to make the programme successful.
Prioritising the requirements for the Green Revolution, including setting up cold chains and rural infrastructure, Mukherjee said: 'For that all the concerned state government will have to take the appropriate initiatives.'Investment in that sector during the 11th plan period was $565 million, and the investment requirement under the 12th plan is expected to be around $1 trillion.
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