'Two-pronged strategy to augment agriculture yield'

The government is implementing a two pronged strategy to drastically augment agriculture yield during the next few years. Official sources said that the strategy focuses on bringing additional area under the plough and narrowing down productivity gap between progressive and subsistence farmers.
They said that special focus has been placed on farm mechanisation and adoption of good agricultural practices to achieve self sufficiency in various crops including wheat.
Referring to the steps taken to support the agriculture sector, the sources said the government has already increased the wheat support price of 40 kg bag to nine hundred and fifty rupees while a subsidy of thirty two billion rupees is being given to rationalise the prices of fertilisers. These steps will encourage farmers to grow wheat on more land. Agriculture credit which is the lifeline of rural sector has been jacked up to 250 billion rupees from 200 billion rupees besides crop insurance scheme has been introduced to protect the interests of small farmers.