AGARTALA, July 20 (TIWN): Tripura is poised to be a self-sufficient state in food-gain production by next two years. The state set a target of producing 9.50 MT food grain by 2016-2017. The total requirement is estimated to reach 9.05 MT by the time, said Minister Aghore Debbarma. Perspective plan to achieve self-sufficiency is on track and the government was confident of meeting the target, he said.

At present the state have 7.5 metric tons of rice production in the state which exposes one lakh metric ton shortfall in comparison to the requirement of the state.

The deficit of paddy will be filled up by high yielding and hybrid variety of paddy seeds. He said, the department would organize seminar and training programmed with the farmers to start cultivation of hybrid paddy at 50,000 hectare.

“We are also trying to facilitate more effective irrigation facility by utilizing NREGA man-days for creating 10 ft x 10 ft ponds in households of each farmer. Smaller rice mills for processing the harvest are in the pipeline,” Minister said.

However, according to the agricultural experts the northeastern region, which comprises eight hilly states, occupies eight percent of India’s land area and is home to four percent of the country’s population, is predicted to achieve food sufficiency in five to six years.

In the last 10 years, rice production has increased by 26.11 percent from 5.4 million tones to 6.8 million tones, but the wide demand-production gap that still exists in the dairy, fisheries and poultry sectors is a matter of concern.

“We are confident that aided by the innovative steps adopted for crop diversification and early planning of rice and massive attempts to provide irrigation facility in the TTAADC areas, productivity will be much higher and self-sufficiency would be achieved in food-grain production”, Minister stated.

He admitted that cultivation of paddy is very sensitive. The cultivation of paddy increases and reduces with frequency of rain and irrigation. The minister said that target has been fixed up to raise production 8 lakh M.T.

Experts say achieving sustainable food production to feed the increasing population of the fragile land of the region is an enormous challenge.

The northeastern states are largely dependent on Punjab, Haryana and other larger states for food grains and essential vegetables. However, accepting the fact that there is a growing trend of people moving away agriculture sector, the ICAR is eyeing forward to introduce new methods of agriculture with more profit.