Petlad, 12 May 2012

Chief Minister Narendra Modi today described the Krishi Mahotsav being held in Gujarat for the last eight years as the biggest ever campaign to revamp agricultural economy by any government in any State or the Centre

Since land size is unlikely to increase, he said, increasing productivity or crop yield per unit of land is the key to increase agricultural production. Nearly one lakh government officials, besides agricultural scientists, veterinary doctors and other experts, fan out to length and breadth of the state in this heat and dust during the height of summer for about a month, personally explaining the benefits of latest farm techniques to the farming community. The campaign has received unprecedented welcome in rural areas.

Mr. Modi was addressing a zonal-level Krishi Mahotsav-2102 at Petlad in Anand district, the other five districts in the zone being Ahmedabad, Kheda, Vadodara, Dahod and Panchmahals. He distributed the Sardar Patel Krishi Puraskar to progressive farmers, honoured them and distributed kits to some farmers as token.

He said that Gujarat Government has evaluated the socio-economic benefits of its pro-farmer and pro-farm campaign by third parties. The success stories include 11 per cent growth in agriculture as against the national average of three per cent, adopting farm-to-fabric-to-fashion policy to increase cotton production, extracting oil from tobacco seeds for medicine, eradicating diseases in cattle in 25,000 cattle medical camps held in the state during the last eight years, reviving dairy industry in Saurashtra and Kutch region, and emphasis on value-addition like horticulture and tree farming. He hit back at those spreading canard that farm land is being usurped in the name of development. If it were so, could there be agricultural revolution without land, he asked.

The Chief Minister regretted that the Central Government continued to remain insensitive to India’s agricultural needs. The extent of the Centre’s unconcern for people could be gauged from the fact that 24 hours have passed since the families of Indians assaulted in Angola have urged the Prime Minister, but no action has been taken so far.

Had Sardar Patel been the Prime Minister, the entire Indian farmers would have been as progressive and prosperous like that of Gujarat. Even Lal Bahadur Shastri’s one call to farmers filled up the godowns of the country with food grains, Mr.Modi said.

Minister of State for Law Pradeepsinh Jadeja said horticulture production in the state has increased from 51-lakh tones to 200-lakh tones, return on agriculture sector reached Rs.80,000-crore.
Minister of State for Tourism Jitendra Sukhadia said wheat production in the state has increased from 10 lakh tones to 50-lakh tones since 2001-02, while area under horticulture has increased from 6.91-lakh ha to 14.04-lakh ha. Parliamentary Secretary Sundarsinh Chauhan said the beauty of scientific farming is maximizing output with minimum inputs.

Mr. Rajendra Phalke from Maharashtra was specialy present at the function.

Prominent among those present on the occasion were Health Minister Jay Narayan Vyas, Education Minister Raman Vora, Minister of State Praful Patel, State Planning Board Chairman Bhupendrasinh Chudasma, Chief Whip in State Assembly Pankaj Desai, Deputy Chief Whip Ambalal Rohit, MLAs Jyotsnaben Patel, Shirish Patel, Devusinh Chauhan, ex-MP Deepak Patel, ex-Minister Bimal Shah and District Panchayat President Jasubha Solanki.