The allocation for the year 2020-21 focuses on food crop production for attaining self-sufficiency in vegetable production including development of rice, pulses, tubers and location specific crops like millets, sugarcane and sesamum. The outlay provided under Crop Husbandry sector is Rs.545.94 crore for the schemes suggested for implementation during 2020-21. Programmes for development of other major crops viz. coconut, spices, flowers, fruits and medicinal plants and interventions to revive the soil and crop health, production and distribution of good quality planting materials,promotion of good agricultural practices for Safe to eat food and Hi-tech agriculture are the other major thrust areas for crop development during the year.

         “Krishi Padasala- approach to AEU based cultivation” for creating awareness among the farmers on AEU based cultivation and establishment of AEU based demonstration units and “Punarjani” for revival of agricultural sector in the post flood scenario are two new schemes for the year 2020-21.It has been the state’s experience that there are a number of agencies in the government and cooperative sector and also registered farmers collective which provides services and take up activities with a view to enhancing the effectiveness of scheme implementation and also augment the resources available for plan schemes.During times of resource crunch, bundling the services and resources of Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) which are in profit for the last three years and having adequate experience in

implementing primary sector schemes including processing, Farmers’ Cooperative Societies andFarmer Producer Organizations (FPO)set up by NABARD and CDB which are graded in A and B category (as per NABARD’s grading chart) will help in enhancing the productivity and profitability of farms and farmer households. From the year 2020-2021 the schemes of the department will be opened to these agencies which submit quality projects. The projects of the FPOs and good working PACS will be submitted to the Directorate directly (and will be placed in the working group). Such projects will be closely monitored by a team consisting of Planning Board and Department and the results will be documented. An amount of Rs. 20.00 lakh is set apart for monitoring and documentation, which will be met from the component ‘public participation’, under ‘Strengthening of Agricultural Extension’. A suitable rating chart preferably NABARD rating of FPOs may be adopted. Only good performing PACS which are in profit for the last three years will be identified for implementation. The technical expertise to PACS/FPOs will be provided by the Krishi Bhavan.The schemes in the agriculture sector will be further allocated, planned and implemented based on the concept of 5 Agroecological zones and 23 Agroecological units across the state. More focus will be given to the corresponding AEU’s while implementing the various schemes. The specific allocation under each scheme to the AEUs will be prepared by the Departmental and approved by working group.