Tamil Nadu has once again won the prestigious Krishi Karman Award for its performance in agricultural production. This year, the award has been given for good production of oilseeds. In 2017-18, Tamil Nadu had produced 10.382 lakh tonnes of oilseeds with an output of 2,729 kg per hectare. The all-India figure of productivity for oilseeds is 1,284 / hectare and the State’s score was 113 percent higher than the overall count. Moreover, the food grains production of Tamil Nadu in the same year was 107.133 lakh tonnes.
This is the 5th time that the State has bagged the award under various categories starting from 2011-12, as per an official release. Southern state was also selected for its performance in food grain production for 2011-12 & 2015-16; pulses for 2013-14 & coarse cereals production for 2014-15.
Last week the Agriculture Minister R. Doraikkannu along with Principal Secretary (Agriculture) Gagandeep Singh Bedi held meeting with Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and told him about the State getting the award.
The Chief Minister had launched several schemes and inaugurated new buildings for different government departments through video conference from the Secretariat. He inaugurated a scheme that will offer safety kits for more than 25,000 construction workers across the State. Each of these kits comprises a helmet, overcoat with reflector & gloves and costs Rs. 2,177 each, according to an official release.
Not only Tamil Nadu but Bihar has bagged Krishi Karman Award this year for excellent wheat production. Besides this, the central government and the state government will reward two farmers of Bihar for producing more quantity of wheat. An amount of Rs. 2 lakh will be given to the two farmers selected by the government. It is for the fifth time that Bihar has won the prestigious Krishi Karman Award. The state got Krishi Karman Award for the first time in 2011-12 for good production of rice. Thereafter, the award was given for high production of wheat in 2012-13 and for maize in 2015-16 and 2016-17. The total production of wheat in the state was 61.04 lakh tonnes in 2017-18.