Tura: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma rolled out the “Ginger Mission” at Oragitok under Rongram Block in West Garo Hills on Friday.

The flagship programme of the Government aims to increase the production of ginger with the introduction of improved and high yielding varieties.

The programme will benefit about 40,000 farmers in the State.

Interacting with the farmers, the Chief Minister said that a total of Rs 121 crore has been earmarked for the next three years for the implementation of the programme, which includes the establishment of processing units, imparting training and marketing linkage.

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He said that the core objective of the mission is to increase the production of ginger from 60 MT per annum to 150 MT per annum in the next three years and ensure that Meghalaya becomes one of the largest producers of ginger in the country.

He informed that the Meghalaya government has initiated different programmes for the welfare of farmers like the piggery mission, jackfruit mission, poultry mission, goatry mission, promotion of SHGs, and the largest farmers collectivisation programme FOCUS.

Informing that in the last four years, the Government through different farmers’ programmes have mobilised more than Rs 1000 cr, he said, “For effective utilisation of the funds and schemes, we need to ensure that people at the grassroots are well informed about this programme and take maximum advantage with the formation of cooperatives societies, SHGs and producers group”.

He said that Meghalaya has close to about 4.5 lakh farmers and it will be difficult for the State machinery to reach out to them directly, he urged different individuals and organisations to come together to initiate the formation of cooperative and multi-purpose societies.

During the programme, he also distributed cheques amounting to Rs 27.60 lakhs to 40 Producer Groups (PGs). It is to be mentioned that to date, 287 PGs covering 1876 households with Rs 1.8 cr have been disbursed so far in Rongram Block.

The Chief Minister also distributed bee-keeping boxes under Apiculture Mission 2.0 to beneficiaries.