GUWAHATI: Agriculture Minister Atul Bora handed over 20 four-wheeler Agri-Horti Transport Vans to twenty FPCs across Assam under the World Bank-financed project, APART, and five areca nut leaf sheath plate-making units to five FPCs under SOPD (Horti) at a ceremonial distribution programme at the Department of Horticulture in Guwahati on Friday.
Speaking on the occasion, the Agriculture Minister said that the main motive of the distribution programme is to increase the income generation of the farmers in the state by implementing the central and state schemes. Such initiatives help in taking forward the vision of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to double the income of the farmers, and the Assam Government has fixed the rate of Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy and mustard seeds at the government fixed rate, for which the farmers have benefited by selling their produce at higher rates to the buyers and State Department.
Further answering the question of the media, Minister Bora said that the Agriculture Department is trying to utilize the infertile farmland to cultivate various crops like maize, millet, oil palm, mustard, etc., for the benefit of the farmers. He also had an interaction with the farmers present during the programme.
The objective of the four-wheeler transport van for FPCs is to carry the commodities produced from their production pockets to the nearby markets for sale. This will increase the reach of small and marginal farmers to the market with better price realization and will help in transporting agricultural inputs for the betterment of the farmers, a press release said.
The provision is on the basis of 80:20 cost sharing, wherein a maximum of 80 percent is project support and the remaining 20 percent is the FPC's contribution against each transport van.
During the programme, Joint Secretary, Agriculture Department, MD, ASCL Gunajit Kashyap, Director of Agriculture Bhaskar Pegu, Director of Horticulture and Food Processing Triranga Bharatiya Borah, and other agricultural officials, along with farmers, were also present, the release said.
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