Agriculture

South Tripura District situated 500 metres from the sea level is having an area of 2624.25 sq km and comprising of six Agriculture Sub-divisions named Matabari, Amarpur, Bagafa, Rajnagar, Satchand and Rupaichari. Each of These Agriculture Sub-Divisiona are looked after by one Superintendent of Agriculture(SA) and Assisted by Assistant Director Agriculture. Deputy Director Agriculture ,Executive Engineer Agriculture(looking after the engineering wing) and Deputy Project Officer,Agriculture (looking after projects ,tribal colony orchards and soil water conservation) at the district level implements their department programmes through the said agriculture Sub-Divisions.4-5 Agriculture Officers in the Agriculture Sector Offices assist the SAs and monitors the VLW Circles.

The average annual rainfall in the district is 2200 mm. The net cropped area is 32962.76 Ha and the cropping intensity 1613. The total population of the district is 795536 and food grain requirement in the district is almost 1.78 lakhs tons. The annual food grain production is 2.24 lakhs tons and thus there is a surplus of 0.46 lakhs tons of food grain in the district. The major crops in the district are paddy, pulses, potato and other vegetables. Among the plantation crops pineapple, jackfruit, cashew nut, litchi and banana are prominent. The production target for plantation crops during 2002-03 was 1.31 lakhs MT and almost 1.46 lakh MT has been the physical achievement.

The target for boro paddy for this year has been set to 25000 MT. Cultivation on the same could be achieved over 23426 Ha of land and the production is estimated at 3.5 MT per Ha interim due to the prevailing favourable climatic condition. The seed replacement during 2002-03 has been 1475.

The fertilizer consumption during 2001-02 and 2002-2003 has been 38.52 and 41.75 kg per Ha respectively. 3000 MT of bio-fertiliser has been distributed in 2002-03. The target for consumption of plant protection chemicals during 2002-03 was set at 9 MT/kg and 5.14 MT/kg could be achieved on this account. 131 training programmes have been conducted in which 9610 nos. of cultivators were trained under different schemes. During 2002-03, 5000 soil samples have been analysed in the district.

Agriculture department has provided Rs. 45 lakhs assistance for increasing the production and productivity of jhum crops among1500 nos. of jhumia families and @ Rs. 3000/- per family. As a result, the production has increased from 600 kg/Ha to 1100 kg/Ha.

The irrigation potential in the district is 30.21% including assured and non-assured irrigation. Adoptive trials of paddy like HYV and hybrid have been taken in the district. Certified seeds through registered growers as well as Government farm is being produced for the last 8 years. During the last kharif, 309 MT of certified seeds have been produced which will be used for seed replacement in the aman paddy. During aman, a target for 60 Ha has been set up under certified seed production programme through registered growers. South Tripura District is self sufficient in respect of rice production and will continue to increase the production and productivity.