International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), financial wing of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), will provide Rs 612.42 crore in 2018-19 to the State government for improving the agricultural sector in eight districts.
Principal secretary and APC T Imkonglemba Ao informed this to Nagaland Post during an interaction on the sidelines of a felicitation programme for agriculture minister G Kaito Aye held at the agriculture directorate office here on Tuesday.
Imkonglemba said Central schemes would be converged with IFAD fund and would cover about 650 villages across eight districts of Kohima, Mokokchung, Mon, Wokha, Zunheboto, Phek, Kiphire and Longleng in the first phase.
He said Peren and Tuensang would not be covered since the two districts were covered by another international project under World Bank, while Dimapur too would not be covered since there was no highland farming in the district.
Towards this end, Imkonglemba said State Project Implementing Team (SPIT) from the State was constituted by drawing staff from 10 line departments and that the agriculture department had conducted awareness campaign along with committee members on April 6 and 12.
He said SPIT would visit all the eight districts to sensitise and assist the district implementing team, after which the project steering committee headed by chief secretary would convene project inception meeting.Imkonglemba asserted that IFAD funding would help farmers in the State double their income.
On the first Naga Farm Doctor mobile app launched at the felicitation programme, the principal secretary admitted before this correspondent that initially it would not be of much help to the farmers in rural areas. However, once this was translated in local dialects, which would be done soon, the app would be helpful, he added.
He claimed that the agriculture department was reaching out to farmers through All India Radio and disseminating information on various programmes and policies of the department as radio was the main means of communication for rural people.
Kaito launches ‘Naga Farm Doctor’ App
Calling for making agriculture department an asset to the people, agriculture and cooperation minister G Kaito Aye has urged officials of the department to be supportive towards farmers. He also cautioned them against wasting money in the name of farmers’ welfare and instead use the incentives meant for the farmers judiciously.
Addressing a programme organised by the agriculture department at the directorate office here on Tuesday, the minister pointed out that the department was poor in implementing projects and urged all officials to work together as positive changes had to be brought about.
Aye also questioned whether the ground reality was as real as mentioned in the administrative reports and urged everyone to step beyond their assigned duties to promote the farmers.
Lamenting that after 1980s no field workers were visiting the farmers, he reminded the department’s staff that the farmers needed to be visited from time to time to gather their views and concerns so that the overall farming system could be improved in the State.
Further, he asked the department to emphasise on compact area farming and identify suitable crops and potential areas for their cultivation.
The minister also spoke on the need to have cold storage in certain areas where agricultural produce was high to bring the “buy-back policy” as the State had failed in the buy-back policy and added that crops were wasted in the past.
He appealed to the director and his officials to extend more support at the grassroots level and take up activities that would benefit the farming community.
Agriculture director G Ikuto Zhimomi, who too was present on the occasion, gave a Powerpoint presentation highlighting various ongoing activities of the department, funding patterns, State schemes, etc, besides giving a projection of 100-day programme of the department (from March 8 to June 18).
Earlier, the minister also launched the first ‘Naga Farm Doctor’ mobile app for android phones that has two sections – an interactive part where farmers can submit their queries and another feature where diseases and infestation of plants can be viewed by the farmers.
Principal secretary T Imkonglemba Ao chaired the programme.
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