Centre to evaluate progress of Jute-ICARE: Official

Kolkata:  The Centre is expected to appoint an agency soon to evaluate the progress of Jute-ICARE project which has already resulted in a higher yield of the crop helping the farmers fetch better price for their produce, an official said here on Tuesday.

"Under the project, the area coverage has been increased from around 12,000 hectares covering four blocks in West Bengal and Assam in 2015 to one lakh hectares covering 90 blocks in jute producing states in 2018. 

"This year, two lakh registered farmers in the all the jute growing states would be provided 900 metric tonnes of certified seeds," Jute Corporation of India (JCI), Chief Operation Officer, Sushant Pal told reporters here.

According to Pal, 64 tonnes of certified seeds were provided to around 21,500 farmers at the beginning of the project in 2015.

He said registered farmers will get the certified seeds at a 50 per cent subsidised price.

"With the growing popularity of the project and initial indication of success, the centre will evaluate the project and for which, a third party government agency will be engaged soon," he said.

"With the participation in the projects, farmers are able to reduce the cost significantly and farmers are producing better quality of jute with a higher yield. The grade of raw jute was also improved. The farmers can fetch additional Rs 300-400 per quintal with producing better grades of jute," JCI's Chairman and Managing Director K.V.R. Murthy said.

The Improved Cultivation and Advanced Retting Exercise for Jute (Jute - ICARE) was launched in 2015 to popularise some of the better agronomic practices and recently developed microbial-assisted retting among farmers intensively in a few blocks in West Bengal and Assam on pilot basis.

The project, initiated by National Jute Board in association with the Central Research Institute of Jute and Allied Fibres and the JCI, was expanded to cover more area and intensify the implementation from 2016 onwards.