Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Radha Mohan Singh made a major announcement for promotion of Mithun husbandry in Arunachal Pradesh.
Itanagar
Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Radha Mohan Singh who is on his one day visit to the state, reviewed all Central as well as State sponsored schemes pertaining to Agri-allied sector 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 took review of all ongoing schemes of agri-allied sector. In comparison to 2014, there has been better utilisation of funds and the fund flow from the center has also been increasing year by year”, Singh emphatically revealed. He called for a mission mode approach to ensure that the Prime Minister’s call to double the farmers income by 2022 is achieved in letter and spirit.
“In order to do so, there need to be sheer synergy between all frontline thinkers like scientists and researchers from KVKs and the field extensions comprising of DCs, Directorate officers, field staffs 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 the farmers income, Singh said that the farmers should be sensitized on all these fields. They should be sent on exposure tours to Agriculture colleges, research centres to gain first hand knowledge about scientific farming.
Singh opined that the district level scientific advisory committee should be frequented in every three months instead of two times at present. Similarly the State level review meetings should also be conducted in regular intervals. This will speed up work and the major issues confronting farmers 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 programs raised by the state government representatives. He was spontaneous to speak with the concern officers and getting the feed back on the status of the work/projects pending with Government of India. 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.
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Lauding the officers for the progress, the union minister termed them ‘Agents of Change’ and said that when the BJP Government in the centre took the helm of affairs with Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister, it was the same set of officers and functionaries who had worked for the previous Government. But in last four years, the development trajectory has achieved new pinnacles with these same people but having a renewed mindset and working style. He said, we need to be onboard and party to the much desired change to make a New India and New Arunachal of our dreams.
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, Vety. and Animal Husbandry, Government of Arunachal Pradesh 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 set 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 sector 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 asked 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 few issues raised by Chai and drew the attention of Union Minister to address them.
Chief Secretary Incharge A Verma also spoke in the meeting.
