Shift focus to sustainable farming: Minister Tage Taki

OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh Agriculture and Horticulture Minister Tage Taki has urged the farmers of the State to shift their focus on sustainable farming and also to take up short-duration, high-yielding, high-income activities like piggery, poultry, fisheries and cultivation of horticulture crops suitable to respective districts.

"The favourable agro-climatic condition, good annual rainfall, fertile soils, food habits of local people are strengths of the State. Capitalizing on these aspects will boost the economy of farmers," he said during a function organized at Ziro in Lower Subansiri district, informed an official communiqué here.

Lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his innovative 'Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan', for self-reliance, self-sustenance, the Minister called upon the youths to venture into farming and livestock rearing as a profession instead of running after white-color jobs.

Government job will get saturated one day; but production from the soil will never end," he said while describing the 'free ranching poultry scheme' he is planning in his bamboo garden.

Taki further stated that the district would soon have very good-quality roads connecting every villages which would facilitate the flow of buyers for organic produce like large cardamom and kiwi.

He also informed that the Arunachal Pradesh Agriculture and Livestock Marketing Board (APALMB) is already working on pro-farmers plan and policy to take the State's Agri and Allied sector to the next level.

During the programme, the Minister handed over packaging and handling materials to the members of 'Subansiri Organic Kiwi & Large cardamom Farmers Producer Company Ltd'. The function was organized by the Agriculture department.

The packaging material — plastic crate — was given to the kiwi growers under the 'Mission Organic Value Chain Development Programme for North East Region' (MOVCD-NER). The organic certification process sponsored by the Centre's MOVCD-NER programme was started in the State during 2015-16.

The Department of Agriculture with help of Service provider, has successfully completed organic conversion for kiwi and large cardamom in the district in 500 hectares and also completed certification (C3) process through Sikkim State Organic Certification Agency (SSOCA) in 2020.

The Minister congratulated the Department officials and also members of the 'Subansiri Kiwi & Large Cardamom Farmer Producer Company', for successfully obtaining organic certification in the three years period and for being the first district in the state to achieve the target, the communiqué added.

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