By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JAN 07, 2022: UNION Minister for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar, and Union Minister of Tourism, Culture and Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), G. Kishan Reddy, co-chaired a meeting to review the progress of various schemes of the Government of India in the Agriculture sector in states of the Northeastern Region (NER) virtually from Vignan Bhavan, New Delhi today.

Union Minister of State for DoNER B L Verma, Ministers for Agriculture of all the 8 North Eastern States attended the meeting. Secretary, DoNER, Secretary, Agriculture, Agriculture Secretaries from the NER States along with senior officials of both the Ministries and their organizations were present in the meeting.

Addressing the North Eastern States, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar assured that the Government of India will do everything in its capacity to ensure that the income of the farmers of the NER region is doubled. He said, "Our door is always open. I request all State Governments to come up with a proposal if you find any difficulty in any schemes related to the agriculture sector."

Tomar said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi put special emphasis on the development of the North Eastern Region. Speaking on the opportunities in the oil palm sector Tomar said that ICAR suggested that 9 lakh hectare land in the North East is suitable for oil palm production. Due to the oil palm production farmers of the North Eastern Region will be hugely benefitted, Employment will be generated and import of oil palm can be reduced. Thus North East has a major role to play to make India self-reliant in edible oil. 

The Minister said there are some horticulture and medicinal crops only produced in North-Eastern State. There is a very big export opportunity for such crops. He said that Agriculture and Commerce Ministry are working together to tap such opportunities and to solve the logistic problems faced by the North Eastern States.

Agriculture Minister also requested State Government to focus on Natural Farming. He said that the Prime Minister's vision to minimise the dependence of farmers on purchased inputs through Zero budget Natural farming that reduces the cost of agriculture by relying on traditional field-based technologies which leads to improved soil health through natural farming should be fulfilled. He also congratulated Sikkim and the other North States for their achievements in organic farming.