Shillong, Sept 10: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma today launched the 200 cr plus biggest piggery project in India for Meghalaya in presence of Union Minister of State (MoS) for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Kailash Choudhury and Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong at National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) Hqs in New Delhi.
Launching the programme Chief Minister thanked the Government of India and NCDC for partnering with Meghalaya to fructify the ‘Meghalaya State Piggery Mission’. “The Piggery Mission would make the state self-sufficient in pork production and would also go a long way in making Meghalaya ‘Atmanirbhar’”, said the Chief Minister.
With funding of Rs. 200 Crore, the mission will have a transformative effect benefitting over 20,000 enterprises in Meghalaya. This is also a testimony to the long standing association between the NCDC and the Government of Meghalaya, wherein the State has partnered on the similar sized Milk Mission last year.
He informed that to leverage all the progress that State has made in the primary sector and the cooperatives sector, the Meghalaya State Piggery Mission has been launched with a focus on augmenting farmer income and attaining self-sufficiency in food and nutrition security.
“The Meghalaya State Piggery Mission, supported by the NCDC, will enable our State to achieve self-sufficiency in pork production, reduce our out-of-state import burden by nearly Rs. 150 Crores annually and improve the incomes of over 25,000 households, totalling to an annual increment of Rs. 70 Crores across the state,” the Chief Minister added.
He also informed that through “Piggery Mission” farmers in the State will be provided interest free loan. “The interest for the loan will be paid by the State Government. This is being done to encourage farmers to avail the loan,” the Chief Minister said.
He also informed that through convergence with MGNREGA, the programme will be implemented in the State, wherein people in the villages will benefit the most.
Informing that this ambitious programme will directly benefit the farmers, the Chief Minister also said that Government of Meghalaya has a grand vision to catapult Meghalaya into the top ten Indian States in terms of Per Capita Income by 2030.
“Keeping this objective in mind, the Government has launched “RESTART MEGHALAYA MISSION’, that comprises a series of interventions to support farmers, entrepreneurs by enabling them to build growth-promoting basic infrastructure and services,” he added.
He also talked about Meghalaya’s diverse agro climate zones that enables the State to grow a range of high-value agriculture produces such as lakadong turmeric, honey, oranges, strawberries, mushrooms, etc.
“The Government of Meghalaya has already undertaken various initiatives to improve production, productivity and marketing of our agriculture produce. The Lakadong Mission, the Jackfruit mission, the Mushroom Mission, the Milk Mission and the Aquaculture Mission are all such initiatives that are aimed at systematic increase of production and value augmentation,” he stated.
