Shortage of Staff Takes A Toll In Agriculture Department

GUWAHATI: Most of the problems afflicting the State Agriculture Department, it seems, have stemmed from the shortage of manpower. The situation in the department is so messy that one official has to look after four/five schemes, besides being the nodal officer of a flagship scheme. The outcome, as it is seen in most of the cases, is that he/she has to end up not being able to do justice to any of the schemes.

The manpower shortage in the Agriculture Department has been chronic. The department has as many as five sanctioned posts of Additional Directors. However, all five posts have been lying vacant for years. As much as 11 of the 16 sanctioned posts of Joint Directors, 18 of the 53 posts of Deputy Directors, 13 of the 103 sanctioned posts of Assistant Directors, 90 of the 165 posts of Sub-Divisional Agricultural Officers, 13 of the 138 senior Agricultural Officers, 130 of the 449 Agricultural Development Officers, and 1,730 of the 2,884 village-level extension workers called AEA have been lying vacant, insiders in Krishi Bhawan said.

This is not all. The department needs two separate Directors – one each for agriculture and horticulture. However, while horticulture has an in-charge Director, agriculture has an IAS officer, who is not from any of the agriculture faculties, to look after it. As if to cap it all, a large number of employees of the department are on NRC duty. According to sources, most of the officers end up not being able to do justice to any of the schemes they are entrusted to because of the workload.

Believe it or not, but it’s a fact that while Biswanath district has no agriculture officer at all, Majuli and Hailakandi districts have to make do with just an officer each. There are, sources revealed, many districts with minimal presence of agriculture officers.

The shortage of manpower has been chronic. Earlier there were court cases preventing recruitment, and now there are some technical problems for the recruitment of a large number of vacant AEA posts, sources in the department said.

The Minister heading the department reviewed the works at a meeting recently. The officers informed the Minister about the problems plaguing the department as a whole.

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