The Hindu : Other States / Rajasthan News : Rajasthan seeks Centre's help on irrigation waters

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Thursday, Dec 23, 2004

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Rajasthan seeks Centre's help on irrigation waters

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, DEC. 22. Rajasthan has called upon the Centre to extend help in providing adequate irrigation waters to the Bhakhra, Indira Gandhi and Gang canal systems to facilitate the sowing of kharif crops, especially cotton, and allocate urea fertiliser in sufficient quantity to meet the growing demand.

The State Agriculture Minister, Prabhulal Saini, addressing a meeting of Agriculture Ministers from all States in New Delhi on Tuesday, said Rajasthan needed 7.25-lakh tones of urea in near future and urged the Central Government to allocate 85,000 metric tonnes of the fertiliser during December, which would partially meet the current requirement of 2-lakh metric tonnes.

The Union Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar, presided over the meeting. Mr. Saini said the irregular and scanty rainfall in Rajasthan, where 70 per cent of the agricultural land depended on rains, had often led to drought and adversely affected kharif crops in the past. The ground water level was also declining in all parts of the desert State, he added.

Mr. Saini also called upon the Union Agriculture Minister to increase the ceiling of grants to the horticulture schemes from 25 per cent to 50 per cent in Rajasthan in view of adverse environmental conditions that led to a prolonged gap between sowing and harvesting the yield.

The Minister suggested that the funds for development of vegetables be released directly to the agencies of the State Governments instead of routing them through the National Horticulture Research and Development Foundation. He also called for extending the drought prone area programme to all the 93 blocks of the districts where the desert development plan was in operation.

Referring to the State Government's "Kharif-2005 campaign'', Mr. Saini said the sowing of kharif crops was proposed in an area measuring 1.26-crore hectares with the projection of normal rains. Foodgrains are proposed to be sown in 77.43-lakh hectares, oilseeds in 13.45-lakh hectares, cotton in 3.5-lakh hectare, and gowar in 23-lakh hectares.

Mr. Saini pointed out that the State Government had increased the allocations for agricultural development progammes by three times this year and established the "Mission for Livelihood'' to look for more employment opportunities in various fields, including agriculture.

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