Congress MDC from Mylliem constituency, Ronnie V. Lyngdoh today asked the departments of agriculture and horticulture to provide incentives and support to farmers taking up organic farming in the State.
Stating that farmers in the State understood the ill effects of chemical pesticides, Lyngdoh however said that policies should be in place to encourage organic farming because use of chemicals in farming has been going on for decades and the sudden shift to organic farming is not an easy task for them.
“Our farmers should be provided with incentives and support to gradually take up organic farming because it is hard for the poor and marginalised farmers to do so if they do not get good prices for all the hard work they have put in farming,” Lyngdoh told Highland Post.
According to him, besides support to farmers to gradually shift to organic farming, the government should also provide them various assistance including those related to marketing support for organic farm produces.
“It is so easy to come up with high decibel slogans and say go organic and get applauded by all the people in the urban areas but it is more important for the authorities to come up with a high decibel policy and see that organic farming is implemented with full support from the government,” Lyngdoh said.
He also said that the marketing board of the Agriculture Department should also be manned by people who have the expertise in the field.
It may be noted that many farmers in the State are still highly dependent on urea for farming and are facing great difficulty to procure it.
Farmers are buying urea from the open market at an exorbitant rate of Rs 1700 for 50 kilograms.
