Arunachal Pradesh deputy chief minister Chowna Mein on Thursday told the officers of Agriculture and allied departments such as Horticulture, Animal Husbandry & Veterinary and Fishery to come up with pragmatic schemes that will help to boost farmers’ income.
He also asked the departments to work collectively and achieve the target of doubling their income by 2022 as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We can achieve self-sustainable development through agriculture and allied sectors. Make a prospective plan for the long term (five years) and short term (one year) to boost agriculture and allied sectors. It is through these sectors we can strengthen the farmers towards self-employment,” he advised the officials.
He also sought emphasis on local spice production, starting the auction centres to boost the marketing of such spices and encouraging citronella cultivation for oil production. He also emphasized on the irrigation system and revamping the old irrigation channels.
Urging the government departments to gear up and perform, Mein said that Rs 1,700 Crore allocated to various departments in last year’s budget remained unspent against which utilization certificates could not be submitted by the departments.
Home Minister Bamang Felix, participating in the meeting, called for boosting marketing of agriculture and horticulture produce. Citing the example of large cardamom cultivated by farmers in large numbers, he said that once it was a success story but due to the absence of proper marketing, farmers are not able to sell their produce and now it is becoming a failing story.
“Our farmers are hard-working. They will grow anything we tell them to grow but the need of the hour is to give them a proper marketing facility where they can sell their produce at remunerative prices,” he added.
Minister of Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Veterinary and Dairy Development and Fishery, Tage Taki said that he is working with a single mission to achieve the target of doubling the farmers’ income by 2022.
“To double their income, we need to uplift dairy farming, piggery, fishery and backyard poultry which will give the farmers easy and quick income. Keep sufficient fund for the purchase of feeds, which is the main hurdle in dairy farming, piggery, poultry and fishery,” he said.
Taki also emphasized on the cultivation of maize, millets and vegetables besides community fencing of agricultural lands. He said that the traditional system of providing tractors through chief minister’s Farm Mechanization Scheme will be updated with more useful and lighter modern machinery.
Among others, A K Singh, Commissioner (Agriculture Production), Bidol Tayeng, Secretary (AHV & Dairy Development), Mimum Tayeng, Secretary (Agriculture & Horticulture), Geyum Padu, Secretary (Fishery), Himanshu Gupta, Secretary (Planning), Gopa Kumaran Nair, GM of NABARD and directors of Agriculture, Horticulture, AHV & Dairy Development, Fishery, Soil Conservation (RWD) and Horticulture Research Development Centre were present in the meeting and gave their inputs.