The objective of the zaid conference is to review and assess the crop performance during the preceding crop seasons
Addressing the National Conference on Agriculture for Summer Campaign 2021-22 through video-conferencing, Union Agriculture Minister, Narendra Kumar Tomar said that summer crops not only provide extra income but also create employment opportunities in between Rabi and Kharif for the farmers thereby increasing crop intensity. The government has taken new initiatives through various programmes for the cultivation of summer crops such as pulses, coarse cereals, nutri-cereals, and oilseeds. Though more than half of the cultivated area in the summer season is under pulses, oilseeds and nutri-cereals, the farmers with irrigation sources are growing rice and vegetables during the summer season. He highlighted that area under cultivation of zaid crops including rice has increased progressively 2.7 times from 29.71 lakh hectares in 2017-18 to 80.46 lakh hectares in 2020-21.
The objective of the zaid conference is to review and assess the crop performance during the preceding crop seasons and fix crop-wise targets for the summer season in consultation with state governments. The minister assured full support to ensure the supply of critical inputs and facilitate the adoption of innovative technologies to enhance the production and productivity of the crops. The priority of the government is to increase the production of oilseeds and pulses where large imports are required.
The minister also asked states to plan for their fertilisers needs and provide estimates to the centre so that the fertiliser department can provide sufficient fertilisers timely. He also suggested that states should increase the use of NPK and liquid urea and reduce the dependence on DAP fertilisers.
Regarding training to the farmers, the minister asked Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) and Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) to jointly conduct the essential training for the small and marginal farmers so that new technology and knowledge reach the grassroots level.
Kailash Choudhary, MoS for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare told the states that special focus is now given to increasing production of oilseeds and pulses and making the country self-reliant.
Addressing the States Secretary, the Department of Fertilisers said that adequate and timely availability of fertilisers would be ensured. He also gave the estimated availability of fertilisers for Kharif 2022.
A presentation by Joint Secretary (Crops and Oil Seeds) highlighted the rainfall situation, region-wise live storage of water in major reservoirs, season-wise estimated area coverage under different crops, trend and area coverage under Zaid/summer, Existing support programmes for summer crops and State wise area projected for coverage under Zaid/summer crops 2022.
During the conference ‘Working manual on Indian Seed Certification’ was released. Presentations on PM KISAN e-KYC and presentation on Farmers’ database were also made during the conference for the benefit of the states.
