ITANAGAR, 19 Mar: The Arunachal Pradesh Agriculture Marketing Board (APAMB) on Friday inked an MoU with the Central Railside Warehouse Cooperation (CRWC) Ltd to establish farm-gate logistics in Lower Subansiri, Lohit and Changlang districts.
CRWC MD NK Grover and APAMB CEO Okit Palling signed the MoU, in the presence of Agriculture Secretary Parto Saha, the NABARD GM, and Guwahati APEDA AGM Sunita Rai.
Three other MoUs were signed between farmers’ associations and private producer companies in a ‘conference-cum-buyer-seller meet’ organized by the APAMB in collaboration with the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APFPEDA) at the legislative assembly auditorium here.
Addressing the meet, Industries Minister Tumke Bagra said “it was a long-felt need for providing these facilities to the farmers of the state, so that the farm products of Arunachal Pradesh reach the doorsteps of consumers across the nation and to the world through exports. This would also bring back the precious remuneration to the farmers of the state and make them prosperous and self-reliant.”
Agriculture Minister Tage Taki and MLA Gabriel D Wangsu also addressed the buyers and farmers.
Grover informed that farm-gate logistics “are infrastructures of cold storage/rooms and basic processing and packaging near the farms for further marketing, so that farmers could reap benefits with no losses.”
Yachuli, Tezu and Miao have been identified for the establishment of the infrastructures.
Further, two MoUs were signed between Siliguri (WB)-based Parvata Foods Pvt Ltd and the Kameng Organic Farmers Producer Company Ltd, East Kameng, and the Lower Dibang Valley Organic Ginger Producer Company Ltd, Lower Dibang Valley, for buying turmeric and ginger.
Another MoU was signed between the Chiroidor Organic Producer Company Ltd, Anjaw, and Farm Native India Pvt Ltd, Assam, for buyback of organic large cardamoms.
The APAMB and the APFPEDA envisage boosting the export of agricultural products from the Northeast region in general and Arunachal in particular.
The three-day programme is being organized to reach out to exporters in different parts of the country. “This conference will provide a platform for B2B and B2G meetings of international buyers with the exporters and exporters with the progressive farmers/growers to explore the opportunities and prospects of agri-exports from Arunachal,” said APAMB CEO Okit Palling in a release.
The conference also aims to facilitate market linkages for agricultural exports from Arunachal and establish the state as a major hub of organic products.
A total of 25 APFPEDA-registered exporters from various parts of the country participated in the event to find opportunities for export of various agricultural commodities from the state.
Farmers from 25 districts, with around 12 farmers-producers companies from the state converged in order to garner exposure to the export market and showcase their crops to potential buyers.
