Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told Assam agriculture minister Atul Bora that the central government will continue to provide all possible assistance to Assam in the interest of farmers and the agriculture sector in the state.
Union minister of agriculture and farmers welfare and rural development, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, on Monday initiated state-wise discussions with the overall aim of rapid progress of the country’s agriculture sector.
In this context, Chouhan met with a high-level delegation including Assam agriculture minister Atul Bora at Krishi Bhavan in New Delhi to discuss issues like promoting soil health, the pradhan mantri fasal bima yojana, increasing storage capacity and horticulture in Assam.
Chouhan said that the interest of farmers and agriculture sector is paramount for the government and the union ministry will continue to provide full support to Assam on organising capacity building trainings and workshops.
Natural farming
Chouhan also mentioned the central government’s policy to promote natural farming and said that there is ample opportunity to promote natural farming in Assam.
Like other North-Eastern states practicing organic farming including Sikkim, Assam has tremendous potential to practice organic farming practices including Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) more particularly in hilly ecosystem. Assam is naturally blessed with fertile lands and diversified agro climatic conditions.
Assam has 272 lakhs farming households out of which 85.59 farming households are small and marginal having operational land holding of less than 1-2 hectares. The state is one of the top five states producing a diverse variety of crops around the year due to its fertile soil and diversified climatic conditions. An adoption of sustainable and profit earning technologies that are commensurate with principles of natural farming will be helpful to obtain desirable changes in socio-economic life of its farming population. These will help boost production and productivity.
According to NITI Ayog, Natural farming is a chemical free alias traditional farming method considered as agroecology based diversified farming system which integrates crops, trees and livestock with functional biodiversity.
Will work closely together
The union agriculture minister emphasised on the need for creation of infrastructure like creation of dry storage, cold storage, processing units under the agriculture investment fund in convergence with schemes like the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture, the pradhan kantri krishi sinchai yojana and the pradhan mantri formalisation of micro food processing enterprises scheme of ministry of food processing industry for enhancing the post-harvest management capacity in the state and to minimise post-harvest losses.
He said that the farmers of Assam will not be allowed to face any problem at the central level, adding that, for this, the central and state governments will continue to work closely together. Chouhan assured that the ministry of agriculture and farmers’ welfare will provide full support for the development of Assam’s agriculture sector.
Image: Wikimedia Commons, Diganta Talukdar
