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| Rs 3.53 Cr spent on Agriculture Production, Deptt fails to utilize available cultivable in toto | | CAG takes note of under utilization of cultivable land by Agri Deptt | | Arun Singh
Jammu, Mar 15: Despite incurring an expenditure of Rs 3.53 crore on strengthening and development of seed multiplication farms, Agriculture Production Department did not utilize its available cultivable area of more than 761 acres of land in totality.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in report for the year of 2013 revealed that against the available cultivable area of 761 acres and 6 marlas of land, area ranging between 139 acres and 500 acres only, were brought under cultivation by the Department during the period from 2009-10 to 2012-13 resulting in under-utilization of available cultivable land despite incurring of expenditure of Rs 3.53 crore on the development of agriculture infrastructure.
CAG said that during test check of records of the Manager Farms, Chakroi Jammu showed that an expenditure of Rs 1.05 crore was incurred under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) for purchase of machinery, creation of irrigation facilities and other agriculture related activities at the Farm in addition to Rs 2.48 crore incurred on the purchase of machinery/ equipment under other Centrally Sponsored Scheme "Special Task Force" during 2009-10 to 2012-13.
It further informed that though an increasing trend in production of crops was noticed in the Farm during the period 2010-13 from 2.85 quintals per acre during 2010-11 to 4.61 quintals per acre during 2012-13 yet it had failed to reach the production level of 5.36 quintals per acre achieved during the year 2009-10.
The machinery/ equipment valuing Rs 67.97 lakh purchased under "Special Task Force" had not also been put to use as of September 2013 due to non- availability of trained/ skilled staff, CAG said.
Besides, CAG pointed out that the State Government under 'Standardization of quality corm (Short thick underground stem base
acting as vegetative reproductive structure) production in public nurseries' component of the scheme approved (July 2010) Detailed Project Report (DPR) for bringing 55 hectares of land (out of total 63 hectares) under cultivation of saffron by providing irrigation facilities and development of land during the period 2010-11 to 2012-13 at Seed Farm Allowpora, Pulwama at a cost of Rs 3.99 crore.
Scrutiny of records showed that despite incurring expenditure of Rs 59.64 lakh during the period 2010-13 on the development of land, creation of irrigation facilities and farm mechanization, only 37 hectares of land were brought under cultivation.
Further against requirement of 1850 quintals of saffron corms for these 37 hectares of land, the Department had procured 1422.38
quintals of corms (costing Rs 2.07 crore) during the period 2010-13. This resulted in less productivity of saffron crop by 56.500 kgs. The Joint Director Agriculture (Inputs) Kashmir accepted (October 2013) that due to failure of the crop the desired revenue could not be generated. |
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