Agriculture of Jharkhand

 Agriculture is the main stay for the 80% of rural population of the state. Agriculture is their employment and primary income generating activity. 

The agricultural economy of the Jharkhand state is characterized by dependence on nature, low investment ,low productivity, mono-cropping with paddy as the dominant crop, inadequate irrigation facilities and small and marginal holdings.

The cultivable land resources of the state have good potential for higher production of horticulture and forest products. The soil is young and has high capacity of fixation of humus. The forest provides sufficient biomass to feed its soiling. However, Soil erosion and failure to recycle the biomass is depleting the soil fertility. Hence, a judicious oil, water and land management is required only that can improve agriculture productivity. Despite the fact that the state has a good rainfall, the surface water availability to agriculture is not sufficient due to inadequate storage facilities etc. as far as the status of ground water is concerned, it is also in the poor state due to little recharging of ground water by natural process in absence of artificial recharging facilities, as a result, the water label in the plateau is going down.

Presently, the availability of water resource is only 287810 lakhs m3, out of which 237890 lakh m3 is from surface water and rest 49920 lakh m3 is from ground water. The total utilization of surface and ground water in the state for irrigation purposes so far is only 47360 lakh m3 out of which 39640 lakh m3 is surface water and 7720 lakh m3 is ground water. For all round agricultural development, technology must be supplemented by institutional mechanisms to ensure the provision of the essential facilities and services that the farmers need to improve agronomic practices and obtain higher yield. Only the development of a healthy agricultural marketing system can guarantee remunerative prices to the farmers and motivate the adoption of scientific cultivation for raising agricultural productivity.

 

The total cultivable land in the State compares well at 52% of the total geographical area with 55% in the country. But, unfortunately while 76% of the total cultivable area is under net sown area in the country, only 43% is cultivated in Jharkhand.

Paddy, maize, pulses, sunflower, groundnut and fruits are main agriculture produce. There is opportunity to bring more land under agriculture in the state as current fallow, other fallow and cultivable wasteland constitutes 18.35 lakh hectares.

Though Jharkhand State is endowed with vast and rich natural resources mainly those of minerals and forest, 80% of its population residing in 32620 villages and depend mainly on agriculture and allied activities for their livelihood.

Important agriculture schemes in Jharkhand

Various schemes are being run by the government of Jharkhand to promote agriculture in the state. Farmers can take advantage of these schemes and earn good money.These schemes help farmers in cultivating their land, increasing their output, and creating numerous job opportunities. One of the state government's main goals is to double farmers' income.

The Jharkhand government has introduced many schemes in agriculture during 2020-21 and 2021-22. Some of them are:- 

1) Jharkhand Agriculture Loan Waiver Scheme :- Jharkhand loan waiver scheme was started from 1st February 2021. Under this, Rs.2000 crores have been allocated in the financial year of 2020-21 & 1200 crores in the financial year 2021-22.

In this scheme earlier there was a provision that loans up to Rs 50,000 would be waived. But it was changed and now a provision has been made to waive off loans up to 1 lakh.

2) Integrated Birsa Village Development Scheme:- This scheme is also known as Birsa Gram Yojana. Under this scheme of Jharkhand, there will be one village, which will select as a Birsa village in each district. It will be named Birsa Gram. A group of farmers will be trained by establishing the Kisan Service Center.

Through this, they have to be informed about the agricultural facilities like market & new technology. For this, Rs 61 crore has been allocated in the year 2021-22.

3) Kisan Samriddhi Yojana:- Jharkhand government aims to provide the solar-based irrigation facility to farmers through this scheme, under the scheme Rs 45.83 crore has been allocated in 2021-22 to provide irrigation facility to a group of farmers by doing the solar-based boring. 

4) Scheme for Cultivation of Horticulture Crops in Cities:- Home gardens would be established on the empty lands of cities and surrounding houses with the aid of this Jharkhand scheme. To ensure that fresh fruits and vegetables are available in cities. Around 5000 home gardens will be built at a cost of Rs.2 crore in 2021-22. One of its objectives is to eliminate pollution and improve cleanliness in the city.

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