Ginger Mission launched recently in the State was extended to the Garo Hills region today at a function held at Oragitok under Rongram block in West Garo Hills district.
The flagship programme of the State government aims to increase the production of ginger with introduction of improved and high yielding varieties which is expected to benefit about 40,000 farmers in the State.
Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma attended the programme to introduce the mission to and interacted with the farmers on the occasion. He said a total of Rs 121 crore has been earmarked for the next three years for the programme, which includes establishment of processing units, imparting training and marketing linkage.
He informed that the government has initiated different programmes for the welfare of farmers like piggery mission, jackfruit mission, poultry mission, goatry mission, promotion of SHGs, and the largest farmers collectivisation programme FOCUS.
Informing that in the last four years, the government through different farmers programmes have mobilised more than Rs 1000 crore, he said, “For effective utilisation of the funds and schemes, we need to ensure that people at the grassroots are well informed about this programme and take maximum advantage with the formation of cooperatives societies, SHGs and producers group”.
He said that Meghalaya has close to about 4.5 lakh farmers and it will be difficult for the state machinery to reach out to them directly, he urged different individuals and organisations to come together to initiate formation of cooperative and multi-purpose societies.
During the programme, he also distributed cheques amounting to Rs 27.60 lakh to 40 producer groups (PGs) and bee-keeping boxes under Apiculture Mission 2.0 to beneficiaries.
It may be mentioned that, 287 PGs covering 1876 households with Rs 1.8 crore have been disbursed so far in Rongram Block.
