Agartala, Sep 15 (PTI) An organic certification agency will be set up in Tripura to promote organic farming in the Northeastern state, Information and Cultural Affairs minister Sushanta Chowdhury has said.
The proposed agency will be responsible for all technological interventions related to organic cultivation and will provide guidance to cultivators to switch over to a new method of farming, Chowdhury told a press conference here.
The agency will be established by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
The minister said an area of about 2,000 hectares that is under organic cultivation in the Northeastern state will be increased to 21,000 hectares in the coming days.
Chowdhury said the government has been working tirelessly to materialise the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of turning the Northeast into a hub of organic agricultural products.
Sikkim has already been declared as the country’s first fully organic state. In Tripura, the area under organic farming has increased substantially. The state is on the move to increase the area under organic farming as much as possible , he said.
Asserting that organic farming will be a game changer for the welfare of farmers, Chowdhury said fresh vegetables and fruits which are produced in the ecological system of cultivation will fetch a good price for the growers.
The state will promote organic farming to double the income of the farmers, the minister said.
In the traditional Jhum or shifting cultivation which is widely practised in the hilly areas of the state, farmers did not get proper marketing linkage due to a lack of certification.
Once the agency is set up, the indigenous tribes will not find it difficult to receive notification on organic farming , said an official of the Horticulture Department.
Chowdhury said the state Cabinet also cleared another proposal to increase the Durga Puja holidays from four days to nine days.
Earlier, four days of Durga Puja were declared as holidays, and Laxmi Puja was a restricted holiday, he said.
Now, an additional five days have been added to the Puja holidays. This year, the Puja holidays will begin from October 2, the minister said. PTI