West Bengal sets up awareness cell for farmers

Kolkata, Nov 3 : The West Bengal government has set up a special cell to make farmers aware of fertiliser prices and seed quality, a senior official said here Tuesday.

"We have set up a special cell at Writers' Buildings (state secretariat) to monitor fertiliser prices and quality of seeds," said state Agriculture Secretary Sanjeev Chopra.

The state agriculture department will also issue an advertisement Wednesday advising farmers not to buy fertiliser at more than the maximum retail price (MRP), Chopra told reporters on the sidelines of a conference organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

"There is enough fertiliser available as far as the macro picture in the state is concerned. We want it to be sold at the MRP. Farmers get obsessed with few brands," he said.

"There will be a second advertisement on quality of potato seeds. Basically the problem relates to red blight disease," Chopra added.

The state's potato production in the coming season would be higher than this year's output, he said and attributed it to the spiralling prices of the tuber.

"Ideally, potato should be grown on 250,000-300,000 hectares but we fear this year the acreage would be higher due to high prices farmers got," Chopra said.

According to him, the prices of wheat, rice and pulses will remain more or less the same.

However, Chopra said, there would be a kharif crop deficit of around 2-3 percent due to the shortfall in rainfall this year.

"Every year, kharif production is about 105 lakh tonnes. But this year it will be 100 lakh tonnes."