Patna: President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday launched the 4th Agriculture Road Map of Bihar for the period 2023-28 and appreciated the performance of the state in agriculture sector since the first agriculture road map was launched in 2008.
Murmu, while addressing a function organised here to mark the launching of 4th Agriculture Road Map of Bihar, said the state had performed well in agriculture sector since the first Agriculture Road Map was launched in the year 2008.
It was heartening to note that production of paddy, wheat and maize had increased two times during the period, she added.
Production of fishes, mushroom and makhana had also increased during the same period, Murmu further added.
“Potential of Agriculture sector of Bihar could be gauged from the fact that first Agriculture Research Centre was opened in Pusa of the state in 1905”, the President said, adding that organic farming was yielding good profit and Bihar should take its advantages.
Bihar government had already taken steps in this direction and started promoting organic farming in districts along the Ganga river, she noted.
Murmu stressed on the need for providing cheap transportation facilities to farmers of the state for transporting of their produce to market. Vast market should also be made available to them to enable farmers to get best price of their produce, she said.
The President said that marginal farmers had no resources to use high technology for their agricultural work. They could go for farming using traditional resources like cow dung, crop residue and cattle to boost the production and make maximum benefits of their efforts, she added.
Murmu also appreciated the rich culture of Bihar and said she was well aware of it. Odisha was also part of Bihar in pre-independence era and she could also call herself as Bihari by virtue of daughter of Odisha, she noted.
The President, while responding to the request of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to visit Bihar frequently, said that she would definitely visit the state in days ahead.
She would also have to engage herself in farming after end of her tenure as President and would like to know details of how Agriculture Road Map was being implemented in Bihar, Murmu said.
Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, speaking on the occasion emphasised on the need of adopting natural tradition of farming to boost the agro production. He recalled how a woman had quit the job of software engineer and opted farming using natural tradition which enabled her to earn more than the salary of software engineer of a Mumbai based company.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar while addressing the function said that Bihar had made good progress in agriculture sector and production had increased remarkably since the launching of first Agriculture road map.
He recalled how farmers of Bihar had surpassed the record of paddy farming of China. A number of national awards were given to Bihar for its excellent performance in agriculture sector during the period since first agriculture road map was rolled out, Nitish pointed out.
Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadav said that allround development of Bihar was visible since the launching of first Agriculture Road Map of the state.
He thanked Chief Minister Kumar for caste survey conducted in Bihar recently and said that it was first such exercise after caste census held in the country in 1931.
