Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday announced to increase the reservation of agricultural schemes for women to 50% from the current 30%.
Thackeray chaired a meeting to take stock of the availability of fertilisers, seeds, crop loans, and crops insurance ahead of the kharip season which starts in the first week of June.
Agriculture minister Dadaji Bhuse said the government had decided to take strict action against the seed-producing companies for the losses suffered by the farmers because of the faulty seeds.
Bhuse said the Centre was considering implementing the Beed pattern of the crop insurance following a request by the Maharashtra government. “Similar requests were made by other state governments as the pattern proves helpful to the farmers. We expect an announcement by the Centre in the first week of June.”
The minister appealed to the farmers to avoid sowing until the onset of monsoon.
According to a presentation made by agriculture department officials at the meeting, of the 16.7 million hectares of cultivable area, kharip crops will be taken up on about 90% or 15.1 million hectares, while rabi and summer crops will be grown on 5.1 million and 0.18 lakh hectares respectively. The production of foodgrains reported a 39% rise in 2021-22 at 16.5 million metric tonnes (MT).
The presentation said Maharashtra witnessed a marginal drop in agriculture production in 2021-22, as it stands at 22.3 million MT compared to 23.4 million MT the year before. Amid the forecast of satisfactory rainfall this monsoon, the state government expects the production of foodgrains, including pulses and cereals, to go up by more than 25% or 10.5 million MT in 2022-23 from 8.2 million MT last year. Similarly, the production of oilseeds is expected to jump by more than 20% to 6.9 million MT next year from 5.7 million MT in 2021-22.
The CM directed the state machinery to help farmers tackle the impact of heavy rainfall, and pest attack.
“We should put in efforts to ensure that the farmers get an assured rate for their produce in the open market rather than depending upon the minimum support price. Crop insurance is one of the problem areas for the farmers, but we are expecting a positive decision from the Centre,” the agriculture minister said.
The area under sowing in the kharif season is expected to increase to 148 lakh hectares in 2022-23 from 14.2 million hectares in 2021-22, the data showed. The area under cultivation in all the three seasons is expected to go up to 158.95 hectares in 2022-23 from 155.15 hectares last year against the average of 151 hectares.
Soybean and cotton are major crops. While cotton production is expected to rise to 11.1 million MT in 2022-23 from 7.1 million MT last year, the production of soyabean is expected to be 6.7 million MT in 2022-23 from 5.4 million MT in 2021-22, the presentation said.