•                 Introduction of Agriculture

•                 Introduction of Agriculture Engineering

•                 Introduction of Horticulture

AGRICULTURE

Chhattisgarh, the 26^th state of the Indian Union came into existence on November 1,2000. The state is geographically situated between 17⁰46'N and 24⁰5 North Latitude and 80⁰15'E and 84⁰20' East Longitude. The total geographical area is around 136 lakh ha. of which cultivable land area is 58.81 lakh ha & forest land area is 60.76 lakh ha with more than 2.07 crore population. About 80 percent of the population in the state is engaged in agriculture and 43 percent of the entire arable land is under cultivation. Paddy is the principal crop and the central plains of Chhattisgarh are known as rice bowl of central India. Other major crops are coarse grains, wheat, maize, groundnut, pulses and oilseeds. The region is also suitable for growing mango, banana, guava & other fruits and a variety of vegetables   with 44 percent of its area under forests it has one of the richest bio-diversity areas in the country. It has abundant minor forest produce like Tendu leaves, Sal seed, etc. Medicinal plants, bamboo, lac and honey are other potential money earners for the state. Chhattisgarh has embarked on a concerted plan to increase double cropped areas, diversify the cropping pattern and improve incomes from agro-based small-scale enterprises. In order to unlock the true potential of agriculture sector in the state, government is paying special attention towards better management of its water resources. To reduce the farmers dependence on rainfall, government is working towards increasing the irrigation potential of the state. It is estimated that approximately 43 lakh hectares can be potentially irrigated covering  75 percent of the entire cropped area in the state. Ravi Shankar Sagar Mahanadi project, Hasdeo-Bango, Kodar and others are some of the important irrigation projects in the state.

                Agro-climatically, Chhattisgarh may be divided into 3 distinct zones with immense potential for agricultural development.

Agriculture Engineering

           The Population of India is growing profusely and the cultivable area is getting converted into residential area. With no scope in expansion of cultivable area in future, increase in productivity has become the urgent need to meet the food requirement of increasing population. The productivity can be increased by efficient and timely use of all resources including inputs like HYV seeds, fertilizer, pesticides irrigation water, agriculture machinery etc. It is a well known fact that mechanization of agricultural operation is beneficial for reducing  cost of production. Energy requirement of agricultural operations like seed bed preparation, harvesting, threshing and seed processing is very high and it is not possible to perform these jobs efficiently and timely by traditional methods. Introduction of farm machineries enables timely operations resulting  in increased production besides the reduced drudgery.

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Horticulture

                    Farmers of Chhattisgarh are used to cultivate mostly paddy in kharif season with an intention to grow summer paddy too, whenever irrigattion sources  available. As a second crop after paddy, majority of farmers prefer to grow gram, mustard, linseed, lathy  which provide less   profit as compared to horticulture crops i.e. vegetables, flowers, medicinal and aromatic plants.

                    Rainfed cultuvation and low productivity of rice (around 1.5 t/ha) along with recurring drought condition lead to large-scale migration of landless laborers and also marginal farmers. Such a trend can br reversed and the socio-economic conditions of the farmers as also the nutritional levels of the general population can be improved only with proper development of horticulture in this new state.

                    . About 20% soil of the cultivated area in the region is red-laterite (Bhata) soil, which is mostly unutilized for growing any crop. These Bhata soil can be better utilized to grow fruit crops under rain fed/dry land horticulture.

                    Horticulture development can assure year-round employment to farm labourers and once horticulture is developed, allied sectors like processing, packaging and export can also gain momentum