ZIRO, Oct 18: Agriculture Minister Tage Taki handed over packaging and handling materials to the members of the Subansiri Organic Kiwi & Large Cardamom Farmers Producer Company (SOKLCFPC) Ltd here in Lower Subansiri district on 17 October, in a function organized by the agriculture department.
The packaging materials and plastic crates were given to the kiwi growers under the Mission Organic Value Chain Development Programme for North East Region.
The organic certification process was started in 2015-16 and was sponsored by the central government. The agriculture department, with the help of the service provider, has completed organic conversion of kiwi and large cardamom in 500 hectares of land the district, and received a certification from the Sikkim State Organic Certification Agency this year.
Taki congratulated the department’s officers and the SOKLCFPC on obtaining organic certification in three years and on being the first district in the state to achieve the target.
The minister urged the farmers of the state to shift their focus towards sustainable farming, and to take up “short-duration, high-yielding, high income activities” like piggery, poultry, fisheries and horticulture.
“The favourable agro-climatic condition, good annual rainfall, fertile soil and the food habit of the local people are strengths of the state, so capitalizing on these potentials will boost the economy of the farmers,” he said.
Taki exhorted the youths to venture into farming and livestock rearing as a profession instead of running after white-collar jobs.
“Government jobs will be completely saturated one day, but production from the soil will never end,” he said.
Taki informed that the Arunachal Pradesh Agriculture & Livestock Marketing Board is already working on “a pro-farmers plan and policy to take the state’s agriculture and allied sectors to the next level.”
DAO Tasso Butung, Ziro ADC Millo Kojin, HoDs, kiwi research centre scientist in-charge Tape Gab, and SOKLCFPC chairman Gyati Loder also attended the programme. (DIPRO)
