Matir Sristi scheme benefits over 35K farmers in 6 districts
kolkata: The Matir Sristi scheme announced by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in May 2020 has already benefited over 35,000 farmers with 22052 acres of land spread across 4,382 sites brought under plantation in six districts of the state.
Over 72.16 lakh mandays have been created and the income generated by SHGs through sale of vegetables is over Rs 2.07 crore.
As many as 1,599 co-operatives and farmers' groups are involved of which 886 groups have already registered under the scheme. The scheme has been taken up in the six western districts—Bankura, West Midnapore, Jhargram, West Burdwan, Purulia and Birbhum. The Water Resources Investigation and Development (WRI&D) department has been selected as the nodal department with the District Magistrate acting as the nodal officer in their respective districts.
The scheme involves various departments like Horticulture, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and WRI&D department converging to commercially exploit fallow land through horticulture, fisheries and animal husbandry for additional income generation of the farmers and economic upliftment of the community through community participation along with environmental benefits mainly in the dry regions. West Midnapore has spearheaded the implementation of this scheme by involving 10,281 farmers on 3,400 acres of land. At least 8206 farmers have been involved in 5,509 acres in Bankura while Purulia has seen 7,372 farmers engaged in the scheme spreading across 5,000 acres of land coming under plantation at 86 sites.Birbhum has brought 4,570 acres of land under plantation by involving 4,023 farmers while in West Burdwan, 2677.5 acres of land have come under plantation with 3,959 farmers. Jhargram has engaged 1,255 farmers spanned across 896 acres of land under the scheme.
The Fishery department has taken up 499 sites in the six districts while 44.99 lakh saplings have been planted on 11,212 acres of land.
Saplings of mango, jackfruit, neem, coconut, lemon, amloki, sapota, mehogini, karaoke, serial, sishu, sweet lime, dragon fruit, kaju among others have been planted.
"Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has asked us to identify SHGs that are badly in need of employment and engage them in this project and we are committed to this," a senior official of WRI&D department said.
He added that his department has taken up various schemes like water detention schemes (WTS), check dams, dug well scheme, solar tubewell depending upon the area and location of the land that has been identified for ensuring water supply for agriculture.
