Kisan SAMPADA will help farmers: Biswajit

 IMPHAL | Aug 12

Commerce and industries minister Thongam Biswajit Singh, today, said that the Kisan SAMPADA Yojana will encourage the farmers and increase their incomes. He assured mass publicity of the scheme through the department of information and public relation.

Biswajit was attending a road show on World India and seminar on new scheme Kisan SAMPADA yojana at Hotel Classic Grande today.

Addressing the seminar attended by entrepreneurs and officials, the minister said the objective of Kisan SAMPADA is to supplement agriculture, modernise processing and decrease agri-waste. He continued there are seven schemes under the Kisan SAMPADA of which creation of the backward and forward linkages is the most important. 

He said before the implementation of this scheme, the new government had proposed opening of some new Common Facilities Centres.

Explaining that major portion of products in the state go to waste, he asserted today lemon growers in Kachai have been demoralized due to lack of market for their products and entrepreneurs to help them.

Biswajit also spoke about the decreasing production of various fruits suitable in the state including orange in Tamenglong and passion fruit in Senapati and Churachandpur. So four CFCs were proposed, he added.

Biswajit expressed optimism that implementation of the Kisan SAMPADA will provide many opportunities to the farmers. He continued he has already urged the entrepreneurs to invest more to provide new opportunities to our younger generation.

Stressing on the need to create wide publicity of the new scheme, Biswajit explained that, if the farmers whose products go to waste is link-up with the entrepreneurs through the Kisan SAMPADA schemes, it is possible that not a single product goes to waste.

He observed that if we check products going to waste than the farmers and the entrepreneurs would earn more profits. The scheme aims at ensuring maximum benefits for the farmers, he added.

Manipur has huge potential in both agriculture of horticulture due to the fertile soil, however, we are lagging behind in taking advantages of the resources provided to us by nature, he observed.

Drawing comparison between China and Manipur, he said people of China give preference to their own products whereas we give preference to exported products sidelining our own products and resources. We should not forget that this culture has affected our economy, he said.

He said it is only onto us to create our future. Many experts and people may come to provide advice and suggestions, but if we want a change then we have to act by ourselves. We should work to improve our degrading work culture, he added.

Additional chief secretary (agriculture) Suhel Akhtar said production of paddy in the state is around 6.5 lakh tonnes, and if we include other crops like  potatoes, maize, pulses, whole seeds, etc, the production is doubled, which means that we are self sufficient as far as agricultural products are concerned

This means that the state’s condition is very good, but we have to question whether the condition of the farmer is also good and whether he is happy, and getting sufficient prices for his products, he said.

He said we need processing industry, a place to market, but we cannot market a product if the quality is not good.

Ministry of food processing industries economic adviser Bijay Kumar said the scheme will boost the food processing industry which will eventually help minimize agricultural produce going to waste and help in employment generation as well.

He said the level of food processing is very low and wastage is very high.

He said the scheme is a means to develop the food processing industry but ultimately the objective is to enrich the farmers and increase their income.