Global Agriculture and Food Summit to open doors of foreign market for farmers of Jharkhand: Raghubar

Ranchi: The Global Agriculture and Food Summit will open the doors of foreign shores for vegetables and other agriculture products which are produced by the farmers of Jharkhand said Chief Minister Raghubar Das here. In an interaction with senior journalists at the Chief Minister’s residence here he said that Jharkhand was the second state in the country to host an event of such a magnitude as earlier it has been held only in Gujarat. He said that even in the undivided Bihar there was no global summit on agriculture and this is the first which is being organized in Jharkhand since the state came into existence.

Mr. Das said that in the era of knowledge one should think of ways as to how the income of the farmers can be doubled, the cost of agriculture is reduced and productivity is maximized and ultimately the income of the farmers is increased. He said that the Global Agriculture and Food Summit was an event for the entire state and not for the government alone and asked the people to extend their full cooperation to ensure the event is a huge success.

The Chief Minister said that like the Momentum Jharkhand which was held in February last year the doors of Global Agriculture
and Food Summit would also be opened for the common people who can witness the exhibitions and the stalls which have been put
up at the venue from 4 pm to 8 pm and their entry is free of cost. Mr. Das said that his government was committed to make the farmers
technologically advanced and as part of strengthening their know how two batches of the farmers were sent to Israel to learn the
modern methods of agriculture and again a batch of 100 farmers including 50 women would be sent to Israel/Philippines to learn the
modern methods of agriculture

He said that during his travel across the state he has come to notice that it is the women who are doing the most of the work in the agriculture and animal husbandry sector especially the women in the tribal areas, therefore, the women farmers needed to be encouraged further. Mr. Das said that to remove poverty and unemployment the state government has focused on laying a network of small and cottage industries in the state. 

The Chief Minister said that if the state and the nation has to develop than it is very important that their well being is ensured and their children are also able to find the jobs. He said that Jharkhand has numerous possibilities in any sector including agriculture, industries and tourism and said that to double the income of the farmers it is important that they also adopt other allied activities including that of horticulture, floriculture and animal husbandry. 

Mr. Das recalled his visit to China where he visited Henan province and interacted with the farmers involved in cooperative farming and also visited food processing plants in the area and said that the farmers in Jharkhand needed to adopt those methods. He said that the event was also an opportunity to open the eyes of youth who are migrating in search of jobs that they needed to take up agriculture and become employers by using the modern methods and technologies. 

Agriculture Secretary Pooja Singhal earlier briefed about the event and shared the details of the foreign participants and the goals and objectives behind organizing the event. She said that tomorrow foundation would be laid for 50 food processing companies in which overall an investment of 271 crore would be made and it would create direct and indirect employment for more than 6000 people. Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Sunil Kumar
Barnwal was also present on the occasion.