Comprehensive District Agriculture Plan FORWARD

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1 Comprehensive District Agriculture Plan FORWARD A plan is a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something. It sets the objectives based on the careful analysis of a present situation and stating the way out how to accomplish the set objectives. The District Agriculture Plan intends to chalk out the pathway to achieve the agricultural development of the district in a specified period of time. It is the Comprehensive District Agricultural Plan in the sense that it depicts road map of achieving the physical growth of the district in relation to agriculture and allied sector. This plan is prepared based on the information supplied by different Line Departments of the district. The plan contains the present agricultural situation of the district, its strength, weakness, opportunity and threat, set of constraints that hinder the agricultural development. A set of comprehensive objectives and the road map to accomplish these objectives in the form of projects and schemes with their action plan and financial outlay under the purview of different Departments of the district are also the major components of this plan. ABOUT COMPREHENSIVE DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL PLAN Background The National Development Council (NDC), in its meeting held on 29th May, 2007 resolved that a special Additional Central Assistance Scheme (RKVY) be launched. According to this resolution, each District will have to formulate a District Agriculture Plan (DAP) by including the resources available from all the existing schemes of Agriculture and all other allied agriculture sectors. The Comprehensive District Agriculture Plan will bring all the sectors under an umbrella and avoid the duplication of efforts and utilise the resources efficiently in a more or less convergent manner. Definition of a district Plan A District Plan describes what a district will try to achieve over a medium term of five years and how it intends to achieve it. A Plan usually contains an analysis of the current situation of the district and particularly its needs and potentials. It should also contain a statement of 1

2 objectives and analysis of on-going as well as new schemes and programmes within the purview of the districts. It should contain action plan along with the financial outlay with a provision of continuous updating. Objectives of the District Plan The objective of district planning is to design an integrated and participatory action plan for the development of local area in general and agriculture and allied sectors in particular. The planning process should be initiated at grass root level i.e. at village/ Gram Panchayat level and obviously the planners at village level will have to collect the basic primary data. The objectives of Comprehensive District Agriculture Plan (C-DAP) are: To prepare a Comprehensive District Agriculture Plan (C-DAP) through participatory process involving various organizations and stakeholders. To enable optimum utilization of scarce natural, physical & financial resources. To assess and plan for the infrastructure required to support the development of agriculture and allied sectors. To establish linkages with the required institutional support services and agencies, like credit, technology transfer, ICT, research organizations etc. To evolve an action plan for achieving sustainable agricultural growth with food security and enhancement of cropping system that will improve farmers income. In this process, it will be ensured that The Agricultural Plans are prepared for the district and then integrated into the agricultural plans of the State based on the Agro-Climatic conditions, availability of technology, trained manpower and natural resources. The local needs / crops / feed and fodder / animal husbandry / dairying /fisheries priorities are reflected in the plan. The productivity gaps for important crops, livestock and fisheries are reduced and the returns to the farmers from these are maximized. There are quantifiable qualitative changes in the productivities of the above components. The livestock and fisheries options are given due consideration as an important source of income. 2

3 Vision of the district By end of XII th five year plan targeting the agricultural growth to be more than 4%. To increase rapid growth in agriculture through increase in investment by the State Government. To increase manifold in Agricultural and Allied Sectors by Public and Private Investment such as infrastructure, marketing, e-farming and cooperative farming etc. To reduce gap in yield of important crops through focused interventions. To maximize return to the farmers and allied sectors through integration of the activities of the sectors. To cover more areas under cultivation through sustainable development. To popularize watershed-basis approach for an overall development in rain fed farming. Methodology The plan was developed with a bottom up approach. Plans came up from Gram Sabha to Panchayat and from Panchayat to Block. Consolidating all block level plan - the District Agriculture Plan has been prepared. The gaps in information were moderated by repeated rounds of consultations with the bottom level officials (Line departments) and also supported with secondary information from the district authorities. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE DISTRICT Introduction Alipurduar District established on 25 th June, 2014 is the 20 th district in the state of West Bengal, India It consists of Alipurduar municipality, Falakata municipality and six community development blocks: Madarihat Birpara, Alipurduar I, Alipurduar II, Falakata, 3

4 Kalchini and Kumargram. The six blocks contain 66 gram panchayats and nine census towns. The district has its headquarters at Alipurduar. It comprises chiefly of a rural population. More than 80 per cent of its total population belong to SC/ST community. It is virtually a cauldron of different ethnic tribes like the Rajbanshi, Rabha, Metch, Santhals, Madasia, Bodo and Toto & Oraons. The topography of the land is cut across by rivers, rivulets and hills, and covered with tea gardens and forests. Major rivers that runs across the district are the Torsa, Raidak, Kaljani and Gadadhar. This District has also a rich bio-diversity in both flora and fauna and has immense envious natural beauty which may aid in future development of this district. Its degraded areas vary between to ha. Irrigated areas vary about 30 to 35% and cropping intensity near about 176 to 182%. Soil conservation is a related area of intervention. Alipurduar District enjoys a humid tropical climate with an average air temp o C and average annual rainfall of 3160 mm to 3500 mm. Major portion of rainfall is drained through surface of land and run into river. Entire district is woven by more or less 80 to 92 big and small rivers. Soil of this district is sandy loamy and loose textural class which is prone to soil erosion and less water holding capacity. Soil is deficient in organic matter and devoid of loamy clay. Soil is most permeable to water and nutrient leaches down quickly. The characteristics of soil coupled with heavy rainfall increases the vulnerability of the agricultural land and other land into erosion. There are problems of sand deposition along with debris & stone due to occasional change of river courses and occurrence of flood in each year. The common forms of erosion are flash, sheet, rill, gully and ravine and stream bank erosion. The soil and water conservation measures are carried out by the Soil Conservation Wing under the Agriculture Department in this District. 4

5 Map of the District Location and Geographical Units Alipurduar shares the western part of Jalpaiguri District & eastern part of Assam State and is close to International borders with Bhutan in the North & South. It coordinates between N & E to N E. It has geographical areas measuring 3383KM 2 (1306 sq mile) and population of the district is almost lakh. Agro-climatic Characters 5

6 According to the classification, the Alipurduar district falls under the Tarai and Teesta alluvial zone covering all six blocks. Average annual rainfall is around 3160mm and minimum and maximum temperature varies between 10.8 o C to 30.9 o C. Relative humidity is 82%. The main rivers of the district are Torsa, Jaldhaka, Raidak, Sankosh etc. The soil in the district is subjected to the following natural and man made disasters due to its topography, drainage system, soil texture, prevailing agro-climatic conditions, land use, existing cropping sequences/ practices etc.: 1. Undulated land slope causing runoff in the catchments of watersheds particularly in the northern part of the district. 2. Soil erosion due to heavy rain during the monsoon. 3. Flash floods causing sand deposition in the inundated areas of the river/rivulets. 4. Soil degradation by use of imbalanced chemical fertilizers and pesticides in the food and vegetable growing areas. 5. Poor capacity of light textured soils to retain adequate moisture and nutrients in the post monsoon period resulting soil reaction ranging from medium to highly acidic. Table-1: Demographic profile of the district Taluk/ Block No. of Inhabitated villages No. of GPs Area ( 000 ) No. of Households Population (as per 2011 census) Male Female Total SC ST Literate Madarihat Kalchini Falakata Alipurduar- I Alipurduar- II Kumargram District Total

7 Table-2: Major occupation wise households Block/ Municipality Agriculture Agricultural labour Cattle and buffalo rearing Sheep, goat and pig rearing Poultry allied activities Other activities related to livestock Fisheries and allied Others Alipurduar-I Block Alipurduar-II Block Falakata Block Kalchini Block Kumargram Block Madarihat-Birpara District Total Issues / Challenges emerging out 1. Agriculture Sector 1. Huge gap in productivity for most of the field crops due to traditional agriculture 2. Relatively less cropping intensity 3. Less cropped area under irrigation with low water use efficiency and poor infrastructure 4. Lack of farm mechanization 5. Poor crop diversification 6. Less use of organics and bio fertilizers. 7. Inherent soil and climatic problem 8. Small size of holding 9. Natural flood during monsoon 10. High prices of agricultural inputs 11. Lack of small scale entrepreneurship 7

8 2. Horticulture Sector 1. Lack of organized food processing units 2. Lack of multipurpose cold storage and go downs for post harvest management of fruits, vegetables and flowers 3. Lack of awareness about high value vegetable and off season cultivation 4. Occasional glut of vegetables 5. Less reliability in planting material and technical support 3. Sericulture sector 1. Lack of realization about the potentiality of sericulture 2. Absence of cocoon market and uncertainty in price because the selling of cocoon entirely depends of traders of Malda/Murshidabad, who regulate the price. 4. Animal Resource Development 1. Poor animal health, nutrition and immunization 2. Poor milk and egg production 3. Predominance of Non-descriptive cattle 4. Unorganized green fodder cultivation 5. Poor reproductive and hygiene management 5. Department of Fishery 1. Huge gap in demand and local supply of fish 2. Underutilized available large water resources (wetlands) 3. Poor skill in fishery management 4. Seasonal capture fishery 5. Unavailability of quality fish seeds from local hatcheries 6. Lack of well equipped laboratory for soil and water quality testing and disease identification 6. Department of Marketing 1. Lack of organised market and well defined supply chain 8

9 2. Trans border effect 3. Poor milk marketing and under utilisation of chilling plant 7. Department of Agricultural Credit 1. Poor infrastructure with low investment in agriculture and allied sector 2. Poor bank linkage for agricultural credit 3. Less crop insurance and subsidy coverage 8. Extension Service 1. Lack of updated knowledge, skill and motivation of farming community 2. Inadequate extension service 3. Research-Extension-Application gap 9