The Hindu Business Line : Bengal heading towards self-sufficiency in grains

With this level of production, the State is expected to meet nearly 98 per cent of its own foodgrains requirement of 166.2 lakh tonnes. The foodgrains basket weighed a mere 74 lakh tonnes in 1976-77.

The budget statement placed in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly by the Finance Minister, Dr Asim Kumar Dasgupta, stated that rice production was likely to be around 147.5 lakh tonnes this year against a requirement of 131.6 lakh tonnes, helping West Bengal maintain its lead among all States in rice production.

Production of potato is expected to be about 75 lakh tonnes - which is the second highest in India. In vegetable production, too, West Bengal was likely to be at a comfortable level of 114 lakh tonnes this year.

However, even within this otherwise `healthy' position of the foodgrain basket there were areas of "weakness and deficit." These pertained to production of wheat and pulses, which met only 44 per cent and 14 per cent of the State's requirement respectively.

Oilseeds production too was on the lower side. With an output of 4.76 lakh tonnes, West Bengal farmers meet just 32 per cent of the State's requirement.

Dr Dasgupta said that with the State approaching self-sufficiency in foodgrains, the Government's agriculture policy was now directed towards taking measures in these specific spheres of deficit. Improved mustard oilseeds were being distributed to farmers along with other bio-inputs. As a result of these efforts, wheat production in West Bengal is slated to increase from 8.87 lakh tonnes in 2002-03 to 11 lakh tonnes this year. Pulses output is projected at 2.10 lakh tonnes while oilseeds production is expected to touch 5.53 lakh tonnes from 4.76 lakh tonnes in 2003-03. "It is through this programme of crop-diversification that the process of reduction of deficit between the State's requirement and production has started for these specific crops," Dr Dasgupta said.

Besides augmenting its foodgrains production, the State Government, through its agricultural policy, sought to increase the generation of total man-days from the enhanced production of each crop. Total generation of man-days is projected to increase from 138.2 crore in 2002-03 to 143.2 crore this year. Thus, on the norm of generation of one employment for 300 man-days in a year, a possibility of additional employment generation of 1.67 lakh has been created in agriculture in the current year, according to the budget document.

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