Tamil Nadu tops in food grain production in 2015-16

The award was presented at the inaugural function of Krishi Unnati Mela at the Indian Institute of Agricultural Research (IARI), Pusa Campus, New Delhi, an official release said. The award consists of a trophy, citation and Rs 5 crore cash. 

Two progressive farmers - R Rasathi of Ariyalur district and S Samynathan of Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu - were presented a cash award of Rs 2 lakh each along with Prashashti Patra, by Modi for their best performance in obtaining paddy yield of 9563kg per hectare and pulses (blackgram) yield of 1700kg per hectare respectively for the year 2015-16. 

Tamil Nadu launched the Food Grain Mission during 2012-13 to bring in a paradigm shift from food security to food surplus through a Mission Mode Approach to bridge the yield gap. 

For this, the state government introduced a bundle of frontier technologies with extensive extension support, besides policy initiatives, to achieve a quantum jump in food grain production. 

"Due to the efforts taken by the Government, the food grain production, which stood at 75.95 lakh MT in 2010-11, touched an all time high of 101.52 lakh MT in 2011-12 and Tamil Nadu was adorned with the “Krishi Karman’ award for the highest food grain production for the year 2011-12. 

The State continued its efforts in achieving higher production and productivity and programmed to sustain this position at all India level in subsequent years. 

Due to these initiatives, the State bagged the award for the second time for the best performance in pulses production of 6.14 lakh MT in 2013-14 and for the third time in coarse cereals of 40.79 lakh MT in 2014-15. 

During 2015-16 also, the State government took revolutionary initiatives for sustaining the food grain production and augmenting the welfare of the farming community.