At the time of re-organization of the Crop Development Directorates in 1996, each Directorate has been assigned bifocal responsibility, i.e. a) for the respective specified nodal crops of the country as a whole and b) for all major crops in the States assigned to each of them. The Directorate of Jute Development has been assigned nine States and one UT, namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Directorate of Jute Development, therefore, has to perform activities for the overall development of the nodal crops in the Country, i.e. jute/mesta and allied fibres and to perform the monitoring and related activities of other crops in the assigned States.

A. Functions for Nodal Crop:

  • To assist Department of Agriculture and Cooperation to plan, coordinate and monitor nodal crop development programmes at the national level and recommend measures to improve them;
  • To assist the States/Union Territories to plan, formulate and implement Crops programmes to increase production and productivity;
  • To interact with national and state institutions in planning the production of seeds;
  • To liaise with State Agricultural Universities and Central Government Institutes for organising training courses in improved production technology;
  • To have closer interaction/coordination with the project Directorates/Institutes and other Research Centres of the ICAR. Represent Department of Agriculture and Cooperation on their Management Committee and ICAR' s Regional Committee, with a view to benefit from research and improved production technology and assist the Ministry of Agriculture to formulate farmers' friendly scheme with a unified approach for the overall development of agriculture sector as a whole;
  • To keep in, touch with research developments by Agricultural Universities , National and International Organizations and maintain the flow of information and ideas between research and development;
  • To have a close liaison with National Institute of Management for Agricultural Extension (MANAGE) in identifying the areas where MANAGE can provide support and bridge the gap in increasing productivity of the nodal crop;
  • To provide technical support to the Extension agencies with respect to the nodal crop as and when required. In this context the Directors of Commodity Development Directorates may attend the State Level Crop Training Programmes; provide literature on training manuals; and also periodically visit some such projects relating to their respective nodal crops and provide feedback to Extension Division;
  • To participate in meetings of Zonal Research and Extension Advisory Committee (ZERAC) and have closer interaction/coordination through this forum in relevant functions and responsibilities;
  • To watch the performance of the newly evolved released varieties of seeds;
  • To study and analyse the trends in weather; crop area, production and productivity as well as transport, marketing and prices;
  • To report regularly to Department of Agriculture and Cooperation on weather and crop prospects as well as market and price trends;
  • To assist Department of Agriculture and Cooperation in fixing targets of production and suggest measures to achieve them;
  • To build up relevant records and data for the nodal crop; and
  • To serve as a Secretariat for the respective Crop Development Council.

B. Area-specific functions in the Assigned States:

  • To function as eyes and ears of Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, also for all major crops produced in the assigned States/Union Territories and to function as "Area-Officers" for these States, Union Territories ;
  • To maintain liaison with State Governments/Departments and other development agencies on crop development programmes;
  • To monitor the crop programmes and report to Crops Division/States about the gap between planning and performance;
  • To monitor the availability of inputs and extension services;
  • To regularly report to the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation on weather, crop prospects, storage, processing, movement and prices of crops harvested;
  • To report to the other crop Directorates on matters relating to the respective nodal crops, weather, crop prospects and other important developments;
  • To represent Department of Agriculture and Cooperation on Central Study Teams etc. and
  • To participate in Kharif Conference, Rabi Conference, Zonal Seed Meetings, etc.;
  • Water Management – timely opening and closing of canals and water use efficiency;
  • Assessment of input requirements – fertilizers, pesticides, seeds, etc. for crops for obtaining optimal yields;
  • Tracking progress and promotion of new crop varieties;
  • Monitoring/tracking progress of horticulture crops and programmes therefore in the assigned states; and
  • Being more visible and interactive with states for promotion and development of crops/varieties.
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