Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Radha Mohan Singh today held a meeting at Administrative Staff College, Guwahati to review the development of Agri-Horticulture sector in Assam. The Minister reviewed the activities of different sectors related to Agriculture in the state.After reviewing the cooperative development in the state, the Minister said that the Central Government is committed to accelerate Cooperative development in the state of Assam through National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC). In the last 4 years (2014-2018), the Corporation has sanctioned a total of Rs. 55.46 Crore for the state out of which Rs. 11.06 Crore has already been released, the minister said. In comparison, during the previous 4 years from 2010-2011 to 2013-14, only 0.90 Crore were sanctioned and Rs. 0.20 Crore were disbursed to the state, the Minister added.The minister informed in the meeting that the production of fish and fish seeds in the state has increased by 10.06% and 43.79% respectively in the last two years. Compared to 576 thousand tons production of fish in the year 2014-2016, state has produced 634 thousand tons of fish in the year 2016-2018. In case of fish seed production the state has produced 14,738 Million FRY in the year of 2016-2018 which is 43.79% higher than previous two years, he said. The minister was also informed that the production of milk also increased by 3.6% in 2016-2018 compared to previous two years.
Reviewing all the sectors of Agri- Horticulture the minister said that all the funds which have been released should be utilised properly and on time. He also emphasised on the need for publicity of the schemes and to take its reach to the farmers. Reviewing about fish production in the state, Shri Singh emphasised that the Government market also needs to be increased.The Union Minister said that the goal of the Central government to double the farmer’s income will be achieved and overall prosperity will be realised in the State. Supplementing the central government efforts, the State government have come up with an integrated cooperative development project for the whole State, he said. The project cost is of about Rs. 6000 crores, under which all the potential sectors such as agriculture, organic farming, horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries, storage and cold storage, processing of agricultural products etc. are to be included, Shri Singh added.Atul Bora, the minister of Agriculture, Horticulture and Food Processing, Government of Assam, Shri V.S. Bhaskar, Aditional Chief Secretary; ShriPaban Kumar Barthakur, Joint Secretary, Ministry Of Agriculture and other senior officials of the Central and State Government were also present in today’s meeting.