Agartala: Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare Minister Ratan Lal Nath today demanded additional expenditure allocation from the central government for the benefit of the farmers of the state in various projects.
He also requested facilitation for 30,000 hectares of hybrid paddy cultivation under the RKVY-DPR project in the financial year 2026-27.
The Minister informed this during a financial review meeting of various central projects of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of Tripura for the current financial year, held through video conferencing under the chairmanship of Union Minister of Agriculture Shivraj Singh Chouhan today.
The Union Minister of Agriculture held this review meeting with a total of 18 states, including Tripura.
In the meeting, the Union Minister of Agriculture expressed satisfaction with the financial discipline and expenditure trends of the state.
During the meeting, Minister Ratan Lal Nath informed that the department has so far been able to spend 79 percent of the money received under the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (PM-KVY) Umbrella Scheme and 61 percent under the Krishi Utpada Yojana Umbrella Scheme. Besides, 61 percent of the money has also been spent on the Natural Farming project.
The Minister informed that the state government intends to spend the entire amount received in the current financial year and also demanded additional expenditure allocation from the central government for the benefit of the farmers of the state in various projects.
“Our state is among the top 5 states in the country in terms of expenditure,” said the Minister.
During the meeting, the Minister informed that the state government is giving special importance to mechanization in the agricultural sector.
For this, the Minister has demanded that another Rs 20 crore be sanctioned by the central government for the Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) project.
He said that the work of making Farm IDs available in the state is currently underway. Since there are more than 1,25,000 farmers from the tribal section who are RoFR patta recipients in the state, necessary initiatives have been requested to facilitate them in issuing this identity card.
The Minister also informed that paddy is cultivated on about 50 percent of the land in Tripura.
“Considering the interests of most farmers of the state and food security, a demand has been made for increasing the cost allocation for paddy cultivation in the National Food Security Mission project. About 96 percent of the farmers of the state are small and marginal. Therefore, a demand has been made for increasing the current cost norms in the projects RKVY, FNS, National Mission on Oil Palm, etc.,” he said.
The Union Agriculture Minister has accepted the validity of all the demands and assured to meet them at the earliest and sanction the necessary funds.
During the meeting, Secretary of the Department Apurba Roy, Director Dr. Phanibhushan Jamatia, and other high-ranking officials were present.
