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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | With bananas, NREGA to ‘bear fruit’ at last by Surbhi Khyati

With bananas, NREGA to ‘bear fruit’ at last by Surbhi Khyati

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published Published on Feb 27, 2011   modified Modified on Feb 27, 2011
To invest the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) funds in a “fruitful” way, the state’s Department of Rural Development has decided to create a banana plantation over 1 lakh acres.

The project will take off in July and will benefit around 1.5 lakh farmers, said Manoj Kumar Singh, the state’s Secretary of Rural Development and Horticulture and Food Processing.

Singh was the Chief Guest of a “Mango Gosthi and Showcasing of Agriculture Technology” organised on Sunday by the Central Institute of Subtropical Horticulture (CISH), an Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) institute located in Lucknow’s Rehmankhera.

The programme was organised at the Dashehari Village, famous for its mangoes.

The state is spending Rs. 8000 crore each year in MNREGA, said Singh. “At present, 35,000 acres are under banana cultivation. We are planning to extend this to 1 lakh acres under MNREGA.”

The project is currently being given the final shape.

“Under MNREGA, lands of small and marginal farmers, Scheduled Castes, Below Poverty Line families, beneficiaries of land reform and land under Indira Awas Yojana can be used and 85 per cent of farmers are small and marginal farmers,” said Singh. “We will give preference to these farmers as well as those from Scheduled castes and BPL families.”

According to him, the cost per hectare will come around Rs. 1.5 lakh. For 1 lakh acre, it will be around Rs. 600 to 700 crore, but the yields will be around Rs. 3,000 to 4,000 crore. Each tissue cultured plant will cost around Rs. 14, and the cost for that, fertilizers and the labourer’s wages will come from the scheme funds.

“This will be sustainable development and the farmers will be able to take care of their future,” said Singh.

Addressing the farmers and CISH scientists in the programme, he said though various institutes involved in agriculture research keep coming up with new technologies, most do not reach farmers.

“I am proposing that instead of just talking about technology, let us adopt

100 acres of land, may be under NREGA, in a cluster,” Singh said. “We will then ask the institute to cultivate mangoes on this land using all its latest technologies so farmers can see and use the technologies and this way the best technology can be propagated as well.”


The Indian Express, 28 February, 2011, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/with-bananas-nrega-to-bear-fruit-at-last/755755/


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