A state level “Farmers’ Meet Cum Interaction Programme” organized by the Department of Agriculture, Manipur was held on the 13th April, 2022 at 11.00 AM in the Main Auditorium of City Convention Centre, Palace Compound, Imphal. Shri N. Biren Singh, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Manipur and Shri Th. Biswajit Singh, Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture, Manipur graced the function as Chairman and President respectively. Shri. M.Joy Singh, Commissioner (Agri), Shri. N. Gojendro , Director of Agriculture, Manipur, Dr. I. Meghachandra Singh, Joint Director, ICAR, Imphal Centre, DR. S. Indira Devi, Dean and Prof. Dr. L. Nabachandra Singh, College of Agriculture, Central Agricultural University also participated in the interaction programme. Al together725 nos of Farmers representing different Farmers Organisation from both the Hill & Valley attended the Programme.
During the meeting cum interaction programme, farmers from across the State highlighted their grievances on various issues including lack of proper irrigation facilities, machineries, fertilizers, Occurrence of Flood and Drought, Poor soil health and soil degradation, Low quality seeds, organic fertilizer, lack of awareness on crop insurance, etc.
Chief Minister appealed to farmers of the State for a gradual shift towards organic farming from chemical fertilizers to have a healthier society. The Chief Minister instructed to set up Farmers’ Grievances Cell by the department on the lines of “CM da haisi” with toll-free phone numbers, where a dedicated set of officials and staff will receive grievances from the farmers and act to resolve them as well as to bridge the gap between the officials and the farmers. He said that a joint effort of the Agriculture, Forest, Minor Irrigation, CADA, Horticulture, Veterinary departments is necessary to develop agriculture in the State and to look into the grievances highlighted by the farmers. He also cited a few grievances highlighted by the farmers and appealed to government officials to bring transparency and to be sincere to their jobs. Farmers cannot be asked to increase their products without a proper market to sell their products, he said, explaining that without a proper market, their products will perish which will only discourage them. Stating that the e-marketing system has made it easier to sell products, he said that how to market the farmers’ products should be the responsibility of the officials.
Minister Agriculture appealed to farmers in the State to aware of the Sky-met data before taking any filed operations to avoid loss due to uncertain natural calamities. Minister ( Agri) informed that steps for setting up Farmers Grievance Cell at the Directorate and District Head Quarters have been taken up. Toll Free number of the respective districts shall be circulated soon as and when numbers are allotted to the Department. Exposure visit of Farmers and Extension Functionaries to other Agriculturally Advance States will be taken up in order to adopt the technology in the State for enhancement of production as well as to increase the socio-economy condition of the Farmers in the State. Assurance has been given to increase instalment for payment of benefit under PM-KISAN from 3 to 4 @ Rs. 2000/ instalment per year. The additional 1 (one) instalment shall be born from the State resources. He appealed to the farmers for diversification from High Volume – low value to Low Volume –High Value Crops. Step for establishment of e-marketing platform exclusively for agricultural input as well as agricultural product shall be taken up. For Kharif 2022 HYV Paddy Seed shall be distributed at free of cost. And availability of Urea shall be made through District Agriculture Officer to the Farmers after field verification irrespective of agricultural land holding. Continuous imbalanced use of chemical fertilizers caused soil acidity resulting in reduction of productivity per hectare. In order to obtain the desired productivity per hectare, judicious and balanced use of chemical fertilizers is needed. Minister appealed to all the farmers to do Soil Testing for judicious and balanced use of fertilizers to get optimum production per unit area as well as to hand over a living soil to the future generation.
