Meet on Agri Mission

SHILLONG, MAY 9: A crucial meeting to take forward the proposed Agri-Horti Mission and Livestock Mission in Meghalaya on a new
delivery model was chaired by the Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma, which was participated by Chairperson of Meghalaya Resources &
Employment Generation Council, Dikkanchi D. Shira, Co-Chairman, State Development Reforms Commission, Sengman Marak and  presence of
Commissioner & Secretary, C&RD and Deputy CEO, MBDA, P. Sampath Kumar, here at SMELC Building, Dakopgre on Tuesday.

Deputy Commissioners of five Garo Hills districts, Pravin Bakshi, C.V.D. Diengdoh,  S.C. Sadhu, S.N. Marak and H.B.Marak, OSD, MBDA, S.
Sohliya, DRDA Project Directors from five districts, Fr. Sunny of Bakdil NGO, BDOs and officials of Agriculture, Horticulture and AH & Veterinary departments were among others who also participated in the meeting.

The government is set to launch the Agri-Horti Mission in the state with 13 focused missions under it through direct mentoring delivery
mode and 3,00,000 small farmers and agri-preneurs are expected to be impacted through this programme.

Initiating the discussions, the Chief Minister observed that most farmers in the region become farmers by default and said that these missions should be designed in such a way that will make farming attractive and all become farmers by choice. Despite coming up with these kind of programmes in the past getting the right kind of response from the people has always been a challenge, he said and called upon the departments to create an enabling environment to generate enthusiasm and ambition among the farmers. He reiterated on the crucial aspects of mentoring and handholding and making the format attractive to the farmers for effective implementation of the programme.

After going through the mission statement, vision and implementation plan presented by Commissioner & Secretary, P. Sampath Kumar, the
Chief Minister pointed out the exercises that need to be done and scientific approach for sourcing the right kind of technology before
going ahead with the Agri-Horti Mission. As far as optimum utilization of lands are concerned, he suggested for aggregating the lands of
multiple land owners and all river basins for taking up plantations and also to identify jhum cultivators to be partners in the aggressive greening activity under the mission.

The Chief Minister was of the view that programmes can be conceptualized by anybody anytime, but, he said, the main thing is achieving the desired results that are visible on the ground and called for aggregation of approach to make Agri-Horti and Livestock missions really effective and remunerative to the farmers.  On creating brands and stories like Chibinang for pineapples and Mangsang for rice as suggested by Deputy Commissioner Pravin Bakshi, the Chief Minister laid stress on scouting for potential entrepreneurs and said that every district should have workshops to identify potential partners for carrying forward the programme successfully. Suggestion was also given to have outlets for branded products from the state and to link them to bigger markets as is being done for apiculture.

He urged upon the officers as well as NGOs present to have joint discussions and come forward with suggestions to address the issues and challenges so that there would be no dislocation once the programmes are implemented. He also called for involvement of departments like Commerce & Industries, Fisheries and Khadi & Village Industries Board for actual aggregation and funneling of resources.