Plans are afoot to increase the production of inland fish in the State to three lakh tonnes a year.

Presently, of the total 5.97 lakh tonnes of fish production in Tamil Nadu, inland fish production is only 1.72 lakh tonnes and marine fisheries is 4.25 lakh tonnes. To make available more fish seeds and advanced fingerlings from 7 cm to 10 cm stage, the capacity of fish hatcheries and fish-rearing centres across the State is being enhanced and additional infrastructure created. Catla, Rohu, Mrigal varieties of Indian major carp (kendai meen) and common carp are bred and reared at these centres.

KOLKATA, 17 MAY: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee today announced an increase in government subsidy from 20 per cent to 30 per cent to the Self Help Groups for various poverty alleviation projects while inaugurating the National Rural Livelihood Mission or Aajeevika. The project, a joint initiative of the Centre and the state government, named by Miss Banerjee as ‘Anandadhara’, is aimed at achieving self-reliance and socio-economic development of the rural poor in the state. She was overwhelmed to see the Netaji Indoor stadium packed with women.

The State government, specifically the Public Works Department (PWD), has no clue as to what the farmers did with Rs.75 crore of Central funding meant for creating artificial recharge systems (ARS) in their agricultural fields.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report has found that only 21,214 out of 2.93 lakh farmers utilised the money to construct ARS, which defeated the objective, improving groundwater using rainwater run-off from their own agricultural fields.

Speaking about the need to increase food production to feed the growing population, India’s representative from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Dr Peter Kenmore, on Monday said that this has to be done in a sustainable manner and by crop intensification.

He was delivering the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development’s (Nabard) 30th anniversary lecture on “Future of Global Agriculture: Challenges and Opportunities for India”.

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) on Friday said it had plans to support development activities requiring financial commitment of Rs.5,320 crore in the State during the current financial year.

In a press release, NABARD said the bank's Chief General Manager for Kerala Region R. Amalorpavanathan and General Manager K.R. Rao met Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and communicated these plans to him.

With hundreds of schemes and thousands of crores dedicated to agriculture failing to substantially improve the condition of farmers as also to meet the rapidly changing demands of end consumers, the Maharashtra government has initiated a Private-Public Partnership (PPP) for Integrated Agriculture Development (PPP-IAD) project under the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) “New Agriculture Initiative”.

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) will disburse Rs.35 crore to implement 165 projects as the first-phase relief and rehabilitation package for victims of diseases caused by the aerial spraying of endosulfan.

Rs.117-crore outlay. The decision comes as part of the Rs.117-crore outlay earmarked to implement as many as 224 projects for which administrative sanctions have been received.

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has launched a dedicated ‘Ajeevika” cell to help alleviating poverty in rural hinterlands. The cell aims at enabling women get better access to financial resources at affordable rates and facilitate establishment of sustainable livelihoods.

A dedicated team of officials from Nabard will run the cell. The cell will work in close coordination with the Ministry of Rural Development for furthering the goals of the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM).

In its first major initiative of involving corporate India in developmental work, the governmenthas sought big business partnerships in setting up the Bharat Rural Livelihood Foundation (BRLF). Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has written to corporates like Tatas, Reliance, Wipro and Infosys to join the foundation as contributing partners, to improve the livelihood of tribals in Central and Eastern India. NABARD and NDDB have also been roped in.

The Union rural development ministry is setting up a body called “Bharat Rural Livelihood Foundation’ (BRLF) with a `1,000-crore corpus with the help of India Inc, to promote economic and social empowerment in 170 districts, including those affected by Naxal violence.

“I have already written to the Tatas, Reliance, Infosys, and Wipro, apart from the dairy cooperative NDDB, and Nabard, to be the founding members of BRLF. My ministry is giving initial corpus of `500 crore,” Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said here on Sunday.