18th Nov 2018 10:11:PM State
Eastern Sentinel Arunachal News

ITANAGAR, Nov 18:  Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Radha Mohan Singh who is on a one-day visit to the state, reviewed all Central as well as State sponsored schemes pertaining to agriculture and allied sectors at the CM’s conference hall today.
Expressing happiness over the implementation of CSS and State sponsored schemes in the State, the minister said that in comparison to last many years, the preceding two years saw maximum progress in all sectors. He complimented the Central as well as the State leadership for the success rate.
“I had visited the state in 2014 and reviewed all ongoing schemes of agri-allied sector. In comparison to 2014, there has been better utilisation of funds and the fund flow from the  Centre has also been increasing year by year,” Singh revealed.  He called for a mission mode approach to ensure that the Prime Minister’s call to double farmers income by 2022 is achieved in letter and spirit.
“In order to do so, there is need for sheer synergy between all frontline thinkers like scientists and researchers from KVKs and the field extensions comprising of DCs, directorate officers, field staff etc. They should work in close coordination to achieve the single target of benefitting the farmers,” Singh suggested. Advising to give scientific approach to agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, animal husbandry and allied sectors like bee keeping, bamboo and coconut processing which has very large scope and potential to double farmers income, Singh said that farmers should be sensitized on all these fields. They should be sent on exposure tours to agriculture colleges and research centres to gain firsthand knowledge about scientific farming.
Singh opined that the district level scientific advisory committee should be frequented every three months instead of two times at present. Similarly the State level review meetings should also be conducted on regular intervals. This will speed up work and the major issues confronting farmer’s income would be resolved on regular basis, the Minister added.
The Union Minister minutely took note of all the schemes of Central  and state government and the pending issues affecting implementation of programmes raised by the state government representatives. He assured that matters pending with his ministry would be positively looked up but categorically asked the State Government to timely submit utilization certificates so that more funds could be released to the state.
Before winding up the review meeting, the minister made a major announcement for promotion of Mithun husbandry in Arunachal Pradesh. He disclosed that  ‘one field station of ICAR-NRC on mithun, Medziphima, Nagaland will be  set up at the existing old State Mithun Breeding Farm at Sagalee,  Papumpare district for which technical backstopping will be provided by ICAR-NRC on Mithun and the State Government will provide all infrastructure and land facilities’.
Dr Mohesh Chai, Minister for Agriculture, Horticulture, Veterinary and Animal Husbandry, submitted a memorandum to the Union Minister on behalf of the state government. In the memorandum, he pleaded for establishment of a Central Agriculture University, a veterinary college in the state, establishment of new agriculture college, extension centre under NRC on Mithun (which was announced by the Union Minister), establishment of research and development station of directorate of cold water fisheries research in the state and setting up of  a sub-centre of National Centre on Organic Farming in Arunachal Pradesh.

Dr Chai while giving a brief of the strength and potentials of the state divulged that the State is highest producers of Kiwi in the country which is also one of the best in the world. He further informed that the state is second largest producer of large cardamom while the state’s oranges are now being exported to the middle east countries. He said that the state is progressing well in all sectors  under the leadership of Chief Minister Pema Khandu who has far-sighted vision to develop Arunachal Pradesh. The Budget 2018-19 of the state signifies the importance state government is giving to agri-allied sector, Dr Chai revealed.

Dr Chai assured the minister that all the matters discussed in the review meeting will be expeditiously taken up especially the utilization certificate issue. He urged the Union minister to positively look up the issue of market linkage which has been affecting the farmers at large. Auction centre/cold storage/warehouse facilities were a few other issues raised by Chai and drew the attention of Union Minister to address them.


Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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