Meghalaya Chief Minister, Conrad K. Sangma on Monday graced the Farmers’ Day celebration as the chief guest at Jonglapara, Resubelpara, North Garo Hills District. He was accompanied by PHE and Soil & Water Conservation Minister, Marcuise N. Marak, Deputy Speaker & local MLA, Timothy D. Shira, Bajengdoba MLA Pongseng Marak, Kharkutta MLA Rupert Momin and GHADC nominated member Aldo Sangma.
The MDA government had earmarked December 4th as the Farmers’ Day to be celebrated annually in the state; to honor the tireless contributions of the farmers in uplifting the economy of the state.
The programme was celebrated here post December 4th since the chief minister was earlier engaged in different government programmes.
The Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma in his speech said 80% of the populations were engaged in agricultural activities working tirelessly towards bringing food security in the state and therefore the state government decided to mark a day in honor of the farming communities by giving them incentives and support through different government schemes that would enable them to succeed in their agricultural endeavours.
“The idea is to upscale the state’s economy from its present 45 thousand crores to 10 Billion Dollar economy by bringing together government’s initiatives and support of every stakeholder. This dream could be achieved by channelizing the activity of every farmer, producer groups, entrepreneurs, the youth through government’s programme such as PRIME, Mission mode programme, CM – Elevate programme by giving them support and platform to expand their businesses thus building the economy of the state”, added Conrad Sangma.
During the programme the Chief Minister inaugurated 17 food processing units of the Garo hills region and informed that 100 more Processing Units will be inaugurated in the months to come.
Sangma said that the processing units would enable the local agri – horti products to get proper labeling and hence enhance their market values.
As part of the programme, Cheques under FOCUS, Working Capital Loans, YESS and PES (Payment on EcoSystem) amounting to 2.5 crore were distributed to the beneficiaries of all Garo hills regions.
The chief minister also highlighted the objective of Green Meghalaya where he stated that it was meant to improve the green coverage of the state by supporting forest owners and communities through financial assistance annually.
Referring to the YESS Meghalaya as the successful programme, Sangma added that 3000 youths have benefited from the scheme. He further urged the youth to register under various programmes and receive government subsidies of up to 75%.
Among others who addressed the gathering during the programme were PHE and Soil & Water Conservation Minister, Marcuise Marak and Deputy Speaker & local MLA, Timothy Shira.
