Shillong, December 21: As part of its review process the Meghalaya State Planning Board under the chairmanship of John F Kharshiing, Co-Chairman, MSPB, held a review meeting in the Seminar Hall of the Agriculture-Horticulture.
With special emphasis to discuss “Meghalaya Mission Organic” – whose objective is to enlighten and capacity the farmers as to the earlier system of farming without the use of chemical fertilisers, and to reap the present day benefits of Organic Farming, and from what it appears today the people of Meghalaya are sitting on a “GOLD MINE” yet to be tapped by the farmers who are only to revert to the old system of farming with the clean technology of today.
As per the presentation of the officials of the Horticulture / Agriculture Departments the State has targeted 40,000 Hectares and the targeted area alone in East Khasi Hills District is approximately 5000 Hectares which is already in the 2nd year of conversion and after the third year of conversion subject to the National Organic Guidelines the state will be able to generate the much in demand high price organic vegetables.
The State Planning Board, Bah John F Kharshiing, had also invited a few farmers who are land owners as an opportunity to give an awareness to the farmers on the subject who after the discussions were eager to create a MOVEMENT for Organic cultivation.
The discussions raised a number of issues especially as to the huge quantity of cowdung imported from outside the state by farmers which is from cattle who are fed with on chemically infected feeds and the same cowdung infects the produce of the soil of the farmers in Meghalaya. Hence encouraging farmers to move towards the lucrative cattle rearing activity in their own farms has also been a very important objective of Mission Organic in the Stat
The officials informed that a number of farmers have come forward to raise organic vegetables however the department urged the farmers to work hard to be able to achieve organic certification as per national guidelines as the potential is huge given the demands today from health conscious citizens. A number of inititatives are in progress to help farmers who are all sitting over a gold mine.
