West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has recognised her government's 'Matir Srishti' programme and awarded it an international certificate for its community-driven initiatives.
Taking to social media, CM Banerjee said: "Proud to share that the United Nations has recognised our initiative yet again. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN has awarded an internationally valued certificate to us for our community initiatives in our innovative ‘Matir Srishti’ programme, which we had launched in 2020 in our dry western (Paschimanchal) districts."
She further said, “Now, this creative and multi-departmental concept has received UN recognition of being a worthy community initiative in the category of preservation of natural heritage and biodiversity.” The Chief Minister said that through the ‘Matir Srishti’ initiative, her government has crafted a unique vision that integrates strategies relating to land development, irrigation and panchayat-level implementation.
“The vision has been to make barren, non-arable, dry, mono-crop lands finally fertile and cultivable for growing multiple crops, including horticulture and vegetable cultivation. Additional irrigation support has been created by developing new water bodies such as ponds and other irrigation sources.
Lakhs of livelihood opportunities have been generated, and family incomes have increased manifold,” she said. Sharing a copy of the certificates received for her government’s other initiatives, Banerjee said, “I am further happy to inform that the United Nations (FAO) has also recognised West Bengal’s famed Gobindbhog, Tulaipanji and Kanakchur aromatic rice as food and culture heritage.”
“I am sharing Certificates of Recognition received from the Director General of FAO of the United Nations,” she added. She further stated, “UN-FAO recognition of these initiatives is a prestigious honour for globally recognised good work to conserve natural heritage, biodiversity and food and culture heritage.
We dedicate this recognition to our entire rural community, especially the farmers of Bengal.” It may be noted that in 2017, the West Bengal government’s flagship ‘Kanyashree Prakalpa’ received the United Nations Public Service Award, securing first place in the global competition.
Kanyashree Prakalpa is a targeted conditional cash transfer scheme aimed at preventing child marriage and encouraging girls to continue their education in schools and other educational institutions. In June 2017, the United Nations conferred the Public Service Award on the West Bengal government for the scheme at a ceremony held at the World Forum in The Hague, the Netherlands.
The scheme, which was conceptualised under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, secured the top honour among 552 projects from 62 countries nominated for the award. A trophy and certificate were presented to Banerjee, who attended the ceremony in person.