Govt mulling setting up Farmers' Development Corporation: CM

The Assam Government is mulling setting up of a Farmers' Development Corporation and Rs 1,000 crore will be allocated for taking up various farmers' oriented schemes.
This was stated by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi during an interactive programme with 100 farmers from different parts of the state in the city today.
Gogoi said his Government was laying emphasis on the agriculture sector and had taken up a slew of schemes aimed at raising the income of the farmers.
"Ours is an agrarian economy and the development of the state hinges on agriculture and allied sectors. That is why our government has accorded top priority to the agriculture sector and has taken up a slew of schemes towards this end," he added.

The chief minister said his Government had put emphasis on farm mechanisation and the farmers would have to adopt modern farming to raise the agriculture production, thus boosting their income.
The government would provide assistance to farmers who had done exceedingly well in their respective fields and asked the Agriculture Department to draw a list of 100 selected farmers, Gogoi said.

Agriculture Minister Rakibul Hussain said the thrust of his department was to shift from single to multiple cropping in a year to augment the income of the farmers.
Hussain said his department had already initiated the process for timely distribution of potato seeds from October this year.

Listing out the achievements on the agriculture front, he said the state had attained self-sufficiency in rice production in 2010 and had done well in production of pulses.
The minister said the concept of the interactive programme with the chief minister was aimed at giving the farmers the recognition they richly deserved as well as giving them the opportunity to share the problems afflicting them.