The Assam Chief Minister – Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday expressed dissatisfaction over the agriculture and forest departments for “lagging behind” in generating awareness among cultivators on government schemes meant for their benefits.
He noted that the two divisions, along with the Department of Panchayat and Rural Development (P&RD), should reach out to the farmers at the village and cluster-levels to aware them about the various state and central schemes.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the three-day 7th Assam International Agri-Horti Show, Sarma shared, “There have been so many important decisions taken by our government in the past one year for farmers. But, I have a feeling that our agriculture and forest departments are lagging behind in talking to people about these.”
He took instances of several such programmes, like allowing selling of commercial trees planted in private land without the need for permission from the forest department, and processing of certain forest products without commercial license.
The chief minister also said that the state administration is striving to maintain the welfare of the tea industry, and “there has been an increase in export of Assam orthodox tea this year, which will reap benefits for the sector.”
“For paddy, the administration is working closely with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) since the past one year to ensure that farmers are able to sell their produce directly to the FCI at the minimum support price (MSP). We are keeping a watch to ensure that farmers are not duped by any quarter to sell their paddy at below the MSP. We want to create not just ‘lakhpati’ but ‘crorepati’ paddy farmers,” Sarma said.
He emphasized the significance of agro-economy for boosting the overall development of the state, and pledged the full assistance from the government in this regard.
The CM appealed farmers to concentrate on organic and natural farming, and the need to take up millet farming on a larger scale, in regard to the global importance for its nutritious value.