Kerala To Double Rice Production

Worried over the state’s increasing food dependency on other states, the Kerala government has drawn up a package for doubling paddy production in the state.

According to officials, the package has free crop insurance, interest-free loans, production incentives, free power and group farming.

The programme, being implemented at an outlay of Rs 1 billion, will be coordinated by the Paddy Board. As part of the programme, soil tests would be undertaken in 1,000 villages and ‘soil health cards’ will be given to farmers.

Farmers will be supplied with harvesting and other machines through the Kerala Agro Industries Corporation as per a farm calendar to be prepared in advance.

The government is also planning to start an agricultural polytechnic with the objective of creating a ‘labour army’ capable of handling modern farm machineries.

The objective was to increase the area of paddy farming from the present 250,000 hectares to 300,000 hectares and the productivity from 2.5 tonnes per hectare to five tonnes.

In the first phase of the programme, the rice production would be raised from 600,000 tonnes to 1,200,000 tonnes.

The year 2008 will be observed as ‘coconut year’, as part of which various projects for increasing the production of coconuts as also to bring about product diversification will be taken up.

A campaign to raise the consumption of coconut oil and other coconut products will also be launched.

The Horticultural Mission will implement projects worth Rs 1.74 billion this year and as the first phase, mango trees will be distributed to 100,000 families through the ‘Krishi Bhavans’.

It is also planned to take the programme to more places in the state by including other fruits. Besides, an ‘international horticultural expo’ will be held for the first time in the state this year.

The Agro Industries Corporation will set up a plant to process 300 tonnes of pepper into ‘white pepper’ annually with an expected turnover of Rs 50 million.

The federation of coconut farmers, Kerafed’, will also establish a unit at Karunagappally to produce desiccated coconut powder, coconut cream and coconut milk with a projected annual turnover of Rs 54 million.

Source: Commodity Online