Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI)

Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India, or commonly referred to as BGREI, is a sub-scheme of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and is implemented in the states of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh. The Scheme has been formulated in order to address the constraints that limit the productivity of rice-based cropping systems in the States mentioned earlier. This article talks about Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI), including the various features and essentials of the same.

Overview

The constraints that held back the productivity of the rice-based cropping system gave rise to a new initiative known as the Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI) by the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana. This scheme aims to shift the cultivation of water-intensive crops from the north-western parts of India to their eastern counterparts. The programme was launched in Assam, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh (Purvanchal). As a part of this scheme, various activities such as cluster demonstration of improved package of practices, building of assets, site-specific activities and market support are conducted and taken care of. The approach of this program focusses on medium and long-term strategies for asset building activities of water conservation and their utilisation. The two essential pre-requisites for bringing about this Revolution in these parts of India is the improvement of institutions and the input delivery mechanism.

Aim

The aim of the Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI) is as follows:

The Program aims to take care of essential technologies with respect to certain provisions for the incentivised supply of recommended agricultural inputs to farmers who adopt the cluster approach in order to ensure equity amongst the farmers themselves across selected locations in the BGREI States.

Objectives

The following are the primary objectives of the Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI) Program.

To increase the production and the productivity of rice and wheat by adopting the latest crop production technologies.
To promote the cultivation in rice fallow areas and to increase cropping intensity, and incomes to farmers.
To create water harvesting structures and increase the efficient utilisation of water potential.
To promote post rain harvesting technology and marketing support.

Strategy

The following are the strategies that the Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI) Program focuses on implementing.

To promote improved production technology of rice on a massive scale that includes the popularisation of the newly released HY cultivars and hybrids.
To popularise adoption of stress tolerant rice varieties.
To bring rice fallow areas under cultivation through cropping system based approach.
To create irrigation structures like farm ponds and lift irrigation point in order to improve irrigation potential.
To create infrastructure such as godowns, procurement centres, and marking infrastructures.
To promote the use of farm machinery and implements suitable for small land holding sizes.
To provide technical backstopping by scientists of SAU, CRRI and ICAR Institutions.

Monitoring Mechanism

The monitoring mechanism for the Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI) is executed by two teams as given below:

National Level Monitoring Team
District Level Monitoring Team

National Level Monitoring Team

The National Level Monitoring Team will be formulated for every state the program will be active in. The NLMT would monitor the activities of the program for a specific state. The Program has clearly defined the composition and the terms for the National Level Monitoring Team. The team would visit the State that they are assigned to at least once in a crop season. They will submit a report to the Agricultural Production Commissioner of the concerned State. The concerned authorities would later submit a detailed report to the Agriculture Commissioner of the Government of India.

District Level Monitoring Team

The District Level Monitoring Team will comprise of the following members:

Serial Number	Designation	Position
1	District Agriculture Officer	Chairman
2	ATMA in-charge	Member
3	KVK Scientist	Member
4	Nominated Scientist of CRRI/ SAU/ ICAR Institute for the assigned district	Member

The District Level Monitoring Team would visit the designated State thrice in a crop season. To elaborate, they would visit the State once before sowing the seeds, another in the mid of the season; and finally at the time of harvesting to check on the crop-cutting experiments. Accordingly, a report would be submitted to the Director of Agriculture of the concerned State with a copy of the same being sent to CRRI, Cuttack and the Directorate of Rice Development, Patna.

Fund Flow Mechanism

The provision of the fund in order to implement the program will be made annually under the supervision of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana. The Central Government would finalise the approval of the Action Plan for each State in consultation with the concerned State. The action plans approved by the Government will be required to be approved by the State Level Sanctioning Committee on the pattern of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana for the issue of the Government administrative and financial sanction and subsequent release of funds to the State.

Year-wise Allocation of Funds for the Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI) Program

Serial Number	Year	Allocation (Central Share)	Release (Central Share)
1	2010-2011	INR 435 Crores	INR 402.70 Crores
2	2011-2012	INR 400 Crores	INR 396.91 Crores
3	2012-2013	INR 1000 Crores	INR 998.03 Crores
4	2013-2014	INR 1000 Crores	INR 623.57 Crores
5	2014-2015	INR 1000 Crores	INR 845.84 Crores
6	2015-2016	INR 500 Crores	INR 397.11 Crores
7	2016-2017	INR 630 Crores	INR 553.57 Crores
8	2017-2018	INR 450 Crores	INR 329.01 Crores
9	2018-2019	INR 315 Crores	Yet to be declared

Reporting System

The State Department of Agriculture will submit a Quarterly Progress Report by the 15th of every month following each quarter. Similarly, a detailed Annual Progress Report will be sent by the respective State within 3 months after the year ends, in a prescribed format that is mentioned by the Scheme for rice and wheat exclusively.

Evaluation

Impact Evaluation Studies will be undertaken through an independent agency in order to assess the impact of the program in terms of increasing the productivity of rice, wheat and the enhancement in the income of farmers.

Criteria for Identification of Areas and Beneficiaries

The allocation of funds for the Program will be made for the general public. Plans such as the Special Component Plan (SCP) and the Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes are made as per their proportion in the State population. Moreover, a minimum of 33% of the funds will be allocated for small and marginal farmers, while another 33% of the funds will be earmarked for women farmers.

Marketing Support

Adoption of excellent agriculture practices and response to improved technologies by farmers have resulted in a significant increase in the share of the eastern region in total production of rice in the country. However, procurement and storage are of concern. Assistance for activities that would help in the enhanced procurement, creation of storage facility, marketing and value addition will be provided. These activities will include the promotion or creation of primary processing facilities including farm level storage, institution building, linkage for procurement operations or marketing. Assistance will be provided by offering 50% of the project cost for an individual beneficiary and 100% for community assets.

Summary of Pattern of Assistance

Serial Number	Name of Interventions	Pattern of Assistance	Interventions to be covered
Serial Number	Name of Interventions	Pattern of Assistance	Rice	Wheat
1	Demonstration
1.1	Demonstration of Improved Packages of Practices	INR 7,500 per HA	Available	Available
1.2	Cropping System Based Demonstrations	INR 12,500 per HA	Available	Nil
1.3	Demonstrations on Stress Tolerant Rice Varieties	INR 7,500 per HA	Available	Nil
2	Production of Seeds
2A	Hybrid	50% of the cost limited to INR 5,000 per quintal	Available	Nil
2B	Certified Seeds of HYVs	50% of the cost limited to INR 1,000 per quintal	Available	Available
3	Distribution of Seeds
3A	Hybrid Rice	50% of the cost limited to INR 5,000 per quintal	Available	Nil
3B	Certified Seeds of HYVs	50% of the cost limited to INR 1,000 per quintal	Available	Available
4	Nutrient management and soil ameliorants
4A	Micro-nutrients	50% of the cost limited to INR 500 per HA	Available	Available
4B	Lime	50% of the cost limited to INR 1,000 per HA	Available	Nil
4C	Bio-fertilizers	50% of the cost limited to INR 300 per HA	Available	Available
4D	Gypsum	50% of the cost limited to INR 750 per HA	Available	Available
5	Integrated Pests Management (IPM)
5A	PP Chemical/ Bio-pesticides/ Bio-agents	50% of the cost limited to INR 500 per HA	Available	Available
5B	Weedicides	50% of the cost limited to INR 500 per HA	Available	Available
6	Asset Building
6A	Dug Well	100% of the cost limited to INR 30,000	Available	Nil
6B	Bore Well	100% of the cost limited to INR 30,000	Available	Nil
6C	Shallow Tube Well	100% of the cost limited to INR 12,000	Available	Nil
6D	Drum Seeder	INR 1,500 per machine or 50% of the cost whichever is less	Available	Nil
6E	Zero Till Seed Drill	INR 15,000 per machine or 50% of the cost whichever is less	Nil	Available
6F	Seed Drill	INR 15,000 per machine or 50% of the cost whichever is less	Available	Available
6G	Rotavator	INR 35,000 per machine or 50% of the cost whichever is less	Available	Nil
6H	Self Propelled Paddy Transplanter	INR 75,000 per machine or 50% of the cost whichever is less	Available	Nil
6I	Pump Set	INR 10,000 per machine or 50% of the cost whichever is less	Available	Available
6J	Cono-weeder	INR 600 per machine or 50% of the cost whichever is less	Available	Nil
6K	Manual Sprayer	INR 600 per machine or 50% of the cost whichever is less	Available	Nil
6L	Power Knap Sack Sprayer	INR 3,000 per machine or 50% of the cost whichever is less	Available	Nil
6M	Power Weeder	INR 15,000 per machine or 50% of the cost whichever is less	Available	Nil
6N	Paddy Thresher	INR 40,000 per machine or 50% of the cost whichever is less	Available	Nil
6O	Multi-crop Thresher	INR 40,000 per machine or 50% of the cost whichever is less	Available	Available
6P	Laser Land Leveller (for a group of farmers)	INR 1.5 Lakhs per machine or 50% of the cost whichever is less	Available	Nil