Cooch Behar, Oct. 7 -- State Agriculture minister Dudhkumar Mandal held a meeting at the Cooch Behar District Magistrate's office on Wednesday to review problems being faced by the Agriculture department and discuss measures to improve services for farmers.
After attending the Seva Jyoti Samman programme at Rasmela Maidan, Mandal visited the District Magistrate's office and met District Magistrate Jitin Yadav and other Agriculture department officials.
The meeting discussed the functioning of the department, problems faced by farmers and measures to strengthen the agricultural sector. A major issue was the shortage of staff in the department and ways to address the manpower crisis, which officials said was affecting its work.
"There was a detailed discussion on the work of the Agriculture department. The issues of where there are shortages and why it is not possible to work as expected were examined. We also discussed how to overcome these problems. The number of employees in the department is low, and a solution to that problem was also discussed," Mandal said.
Asked about alleged black-marketing of fertiliser during the potato cultivation season, the minister said it was a longstanding problem and that the government was gradually investigating the matter.
"We are keeping a close watch to ensure that farmers get fertiliser at fair prices, and necessary steps are being taken," he said.
Mandal added that no special initiative was currently being taken for any new form of cultivation. He said farmers were instead being encouraged to give greater importance to natural farming.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.