The big jump in the rice production is the result of the central government’s initiative to launch ‘Bringing Green Revolution in Eastern India’. The central government programme is aimed at reducing the pressure on foodgrains production on Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, as they have reached their saturation point.

According to official figures given in Parliament, with 7.20 million tonnes, the rice production in 2011-12 was almost 70 per cent more than normal in Bihar. In West Bengal, it was almost 45 per cent more than normal. The total rice production was 14.85 million tonnes.

However in Odisha, the programme has not achieved much success till now and as per government data, rice production was almost 6.70 per cent less than normal in 2011-12. It was 5.81 million tonnes.

With 55.34 million tonnes the seven eastern Indian states contributed more than half of the total rice production of 104.32 million tonnes in 2011-12 in the country.

In the 2011-12, Budget, government launched the ambitious programme called ‘Bringing Green Revolution in Eastern India’ (BGREI) with an initial budget of Rs 400 crore. The allocation was raised to Rs 1,000 in the subsequent budget of 2012-13.

Minister of state for agriculture Tariq Anwar while giving a written reply in Parliament recently said “considering the over exploitation of limited natural resources of north western region due to rice cultivation the government is giving emphasis on increasing rice production in the resource rich eastern region of the country