About Department of Agriculture (DoA) of West Bengal:
The Department of Agriculture (DoA) of West Bengal is the specific arm of the Bengal government working to improve agriculture, develop export opportunities for agri produce and look after the welfare of farmers. It takes policy decisions on agricultural production and productivity, and by extension, on technology generation, ensuring availability and timely distribution of agriculture inputs specially seeds, fertilizers, subsidy, credit etc. Support service is provided through soil testing, soil and water conservation, seed testing and certification, plan production, quality control of fertilizers and pesticides, etc.
Supporting SRFSI project, more than 30000 ha area on Conservation Agriculture based Sustainable Intensification has been out scaled covering 90,000 farmers under the flagship programs of Department of Agriculture, Govt of West Bengal. There has been convergence of different schemes of DOA and policy changes of DOA on adoption of new variety, agronomic package, CHC to farmers groups, incorporation of CA machineries in the compulsory list of CHC etc. SRFSI is also involved in technical backstopping to micro-entrepreneurs and DOA are continuing the same through different schemes using SRFSI protocols.
To support and evaluate institutional and policy changes that establish an enabling environment for the adoption of high-impact technologies which are resilient to climate risks and profitable for small holders, the Department of Agriculture of West Bengal has continuously held interactions, policy dialogues, preparation of policy briefs and advocating convergence with other existing schemes of the Department of Agriculture. All the effort has been partially successful as:
- Government decides on the convergence of the schemes with the project for the first time in the state,
- Government of West Bengal made CA machineries compulsory in Custom Hiring Centres implemented through Govt. subsidies, and
- Centre for Excellence on Conservation Agriculture (CECA) is being developed and establishment of machinery testing and evaluation centre at the Uttar Banga Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (UBKV)through centrally sponsored scheme
