CM chairs second meeting of the Board of Directors of Sidho-Kanho Agriculture and Forest Produce State Cooperative Union

Ranchi: Chief Minister Hemant Soren said that forest-produce-based products can be made an important source of livelihood by value addition in remote rural areas of the state and emphasized on providing a fair price to the villagers for the products produced and stored by them.

He said that Sido-Kanho Agriculture and Forest Produce State Cooperative Union Limited should prepare an effective system of marketing for buying and selling production, collection, processing and distribution of agricultural and forest produce such as paddy, wheat, vegetables, fruits, tamarind, surguja, chironji, sal, amla, lac, mahua, karanj, silk and others in the state. 

The Chief Minister said that a database should be prepared of which forest produce trees are there on private and forest land, and by which group the products of those trees are being used. In the meeting, officials of the Sido-Kanho Agriculture and Forest Produce State Cooperative Union Ltd informed that lac processing is being encouraged in 12 districts of the state. 

Along with this, medicinal plants like Chiraita, Jamun, Ashwagandha, Amla etc are being promoted in the state. In the first phase, forest produce and agricultural produce hubs are being constructed in Ranchi, Gumla and Dumka districts, under which action for collection and processing will be taken.

In the meeting, Chief Minister Hemant Soren was informed by the officials that quality training is being imparted to the rural people at the level of lamps/pax and by the end of this year, there is a target of increasing the capacity of 30 thousand people in the state which will be accomplished. 

Efforts are being made to increase the number of A-grade lamps/pax in the state. Sido-Kanho Agriculture and Forest Produce State Cooperative Union Ltd is continuously organizing meetings with the District Union and the works are being given a concrete shape. State level workshop is also being organized along with the work of survey has also started.

Approval was also given for the selected logo of Sido-Kanho Agriculture and Forest Produce State Cooperative Union Ltd in the meeting. In the meeting, Agriculture Minister Badal, Additional Chief Secretary L Khiyangte, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Vandana Dadel, Principal Secretary Finance Department Ajay Kumar Singh, Secretary to Chief Minister Vinay Kumar Choubey, Agriculture Secretary Abu Bakar Siddiqui and others were present.