Zonal business planning meet held in Sonitpur to boost farmer producer companies

OUR CORRESPONDENT

TEZPUR: With the objective of promoting structured agricultural development in Assam, Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that each of the 500 selected Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) in the state will receive a financial grant of 15 lakh rupees under the Chief Minister’s Utkrishta Yojana.

To ensure effective implementation of this ambitious scheme, the Agriculture Department has identified over 200 A and B-graded FPCs from 34 districts across Assam. These districts have been grouped into eight zones, and zonal-level business planning meetings are being conducted with the FPCs under each zone.

As part of this initiative, the Zone 4-level meeting was organized in Sonitpur by the district Agriculture department. The event was held at the training centre of the Joint Director of Agriculture, Northern Region, Tezpur. A total of 38 FPCs participated in the meeting, including 9 from Sonitpur, 11 from Biswanath, and 18 from Darrang, with over 200 representatives in attendance.

The session was led by Nripen Das, Director of Horticulture and Food Processing, who also presided over the planning discussions. Key officials present included Manabendra Sharma, State Nodal Officer for the Chief Minister’s Utkrishta Yojana and Deputy Director of Agriculture, Debashish Sharma, State Horticulture Specialist from APART, district agriculture officers Naren Chandra Sharma, Baneswar Bey, and sub-divisional agriculture officers Shanshak Goswami (Darrang) and Dr Zakir Hussain (Sonitpur), as well as Senior Agricultural Development Officer Ajit Pathak.

Speaking at the event, Director Nripen Das emphasized the state government’s vision for holistic rural and agricultural development through empowered Farmer Producer Companies. He reiterated that the Rs 15 lakh financial grant per FPC is part of a comprehensive effort to equip farmers with proper business models and planning tools to enhance productivity and income.

He further stated that zonal-level meetings have already been held in Kokrajhar (July 3), Kamrup (July 19), and Diphu (July 30), and that Tuesday’s meeting in Tezpur marked the fourth in the series.

Also in attendance were Saurabh Srivastava, Marketing Coordinator, APART, Bitupan Saikia, District Media Expert, Sonitpur, Divyashree Saikia, Scheme Officer, Biswanath, Debashree Biswas, Social Coordinator, APART, Nripen Rajbanshi, Agricultural Extension Assistant, Shamsher Ahmed, Assistant Agriculture Inspector, along with several other officials from the Agriculture Directorate, APART, and agriculture departments of the three districts.

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