Jharkhand to become nation’s organic hub says CM

Ranchi (By our correspondent): Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das announced that the state would become the country’s organic hub as to promote organic farming on all the 24 districts organic clusters would be set up and the products manufactured would be
branded as ‘Jharkhand Jaivik’ (JJ). In his key note address during the valedictory session of the Global Agriculture and Food Summit here he also announced that Jharkhand Green Revolutionary Company will be formed in the state which will provide farm equipments to the poor and tribal farmers of the state on a much cheaper rate.

Mr. Das also announced that a group of 50 farmers would be sent to Israel and another 50 to the Philippines to learn the best practices of those nations. Mr Das said that since taking over as the Chief Minister of the state he has been working with the mantra of raking people together so that a happy and prosperous Jharkhand as per the dreams of 3.25 crore people can be created. He said that the government has accorded focus to the rural economy as it will help to create employment, increase the income of the farmers and also check the migration of the people from the rural areas.

Mr Das congratulated the honest and hardworking farmers of Jharkhand who by their sheer hard work and determination changed the minus 4.5 percent growth rate of agriculture into a positive rate of more than 14 percent. The Chief Minister said that Jharkhand was not competing with any developed state of India but has the potential to compete with any developed nation of the world. However he pointed that in the race for industrialization somewhere the agriculture sector was neglected and it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi
who first thought about the development and progress of the villages and the farmers and the Jharkhand government was working with full dedication to realize the dreams of the Prime Minister. He said that the main purpouse behind organizing the summit was to make the farmers familiar with the use of modern techniques in agriculture and said that any state or the nation can only take giant steps in agriculture and food processing sector which has trained man-power.

The Chief Minister also pointed the examples of nations like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Israel who have focused equally on the development of their agriculture and industrial sectors. The Chief Minister said that the state government will soon ink a MoU with Patanjali for honey processing in the state and training of the farmers who are engaged in the honey cultivation. He said that Jharkhand thanks to its climate and greenery was best suited place for Sweet Revolution in the nation and said that so far 12,000 farmers have been trained in this sector.

Mr Das said that Getalsud Food Park will also emerge as a food processing hub. He asked the officials of the agriculture department to accord more focus and create awareness on drip irrigation and water conservation and said that targets should be fixed as to how much the income of the farmers has doubled by using drip irrigation method and pointed that one area where Jharkhand can do wonders in production of potatoes.