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Government launches
crop calendar,
sets up hi-tech food
preservation institute

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ood news for

the farming

community
of the state. The
farmers in West
Bengal will now have a
comprehensive guide
for cultivation. thanks
to a Crop Calendar
that will give them
information regarding
cropping practices.
An initiative of the state
government, the calendar has
WEST BENGAL March-July 2014

been drawn up by experts and

gives out information on
planting,
sowing
and
harvesting periods of crops in
specific agro-ecological zones.
The crop calendar is a
comprehensive guide for the
farmers. From sowing to
harvesting, details about the
quality of seeds, manure and
fertilisers, the calendar will
come in handy with the
information provided. The
calendar will lessen a farmers
dependency on the weather. It
will carry information about
monthly weather patterns,
pesticides as well as various
governmental schemes for the

farmers. To be distributed free

of cost, the government has a
target of providing the
calendars for at least 3,0005,000 farmers in each block.
In
another
major
development in the sector, the
state government has decided
to set up a hi-tech food
preservation institute at Malda.
The institute will be along
the lines of the sub-tropical
horticulture institute in
Lucknow, one of the premier
food
processing
and
preservation institutes of the
country. Around 68 acres of
land has been identified to set
up the institute on.n
67