Agriculture being a State subject, it is the responsibility
of the State Governments to ensure growth and development of the sector
within their respective State. Accordingly, separate departments have
been set up in several States, some of which include the following.
Department
of Agriculture, Government of Maharashtra
Agriculture Department took up various land development
activities with the enactment in 1942 and subsequent enforcement of Land
Development Act in 1943. For the first time in 1943, the then Government
prepared a comprehensive Agriculture Policy considering the problems in
agriculture and allied sectors. According to this policy, emphasis was
given on use of water as irrigation for agricultural crops. The department
considers farmer as the focal point and the whole department is organized
in such a fashion that a single mechanism is working to facilitate the
farmer for adoption of advanced technology and sustainable use of available
resources.
Department
of Agriculture, Government of Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh is predominately an agricultural State
where Agriculture provides direct employment to about 71 percent of the
total population. The Agriculture sector contributes nearly 30 percent
of the total state domestic product. The Department of Agriculture is
dedicated to serve the farming community by implementing various developmental
programmes and disseminating the relevant technology to increase productivity,
production and profitability of field crops. The natural endowments like
soil, land, water etc. are being harnessed in such a way that cherished
goals of ecological sustainability, economic upliftment of farming community
are achieved.
Department
of Agriculture, Government of West Bengal
The department is concerned with activities relating to
policy decisions on agricultural production and productivity, its extension
through technology generation, transfer of technology, ensuring availability
and timely distribution of agriculture inputs specially seeds, fertilisers,
subsidy, credit etc. along with support service through soil testing,
soil conservations, water conservations, Seed testing, seed certification,
plan production, quality control of fertilisers and pesticides, etc.
Department
of Agriculture, Government of Tamil Nadu
Agriculture continues to be the most predominant sector
of the State economy, as 70% of the population is engaged in Agriculture
and allied activities for their livelihood. The State has as an area of
1.3 Lakh sq.km with a gross cropped area of around 63 L.Ha. The Government's
policy and objectives have been to ensure stability in agricultural production
and to increase the agricultural production in a sustainable manner to
meet the food requirement of growing population and also to meet the raw
material needs of agro based industries, thereby providing employment
opportunities to the rural population. The Agriculture Department has
taken up the challenge to achieve higher growth rate in agriculture by
implementing several development schemes and also propagation of relevant
technologies to step up the production.
Department
of Agriculture, Government of Kerala
This department deals with the formulation and implementation
of various programmes to augment production of both food crops and cash
crops in the State. It undertakes activities among farmers to promote
scientific methods of cultivation plant protection etc. and also arranges
the supply of high yielding varieties of seeds, seedlings, planting materials
and plant protection chemicals to farmers. The department also formulates
policies and programmes relating to provision of credit to farmers. Agricultural
Research, Education and Extension are three important functions of the
department. It runs agricultural farms and also has an engineering wing.
