Sitharaman bats for exposure visits of Arunachal farmers

Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry (Independent charge) Nirmala Sitharaman today advocated for exposure visits of farmers to gain knowledge in spices cultivation in the state.
Inaugurating an orientation programme to operationalise the Spices Farmers' Producer Companies (SFPCs) and Buyer Seller Meet here, the Minister advised the state government to arrange a tour programme for the farmers to Guntur in Andhra Pradesh to acquire knowledge in spices farming.
Spices Board, the corporate body under the Commerce and Industry Ministry is setting up SFPCs on a pilot basis in Arunachal Pradesh to help small and marginal farmers get better prices for their produce.

SFPCs will help in addressing the challenges faced by the agriculture sector with regard to mechanisation, technology transfer and adoption of collective scientific cultivation, in addition to providing improved access to inputs and markets.
It will encourage farmers to increase the productivity of spice crops and to adopt cultivation and processing as an agri-business entity.
Sitharaman urged the Small Farmers' Agri Business Consortium to expedite the process of opening SFPCs and asked the state government to appoint aggregators to collect spices from different locations.

She also asked for creation of a common infrastructure for a group of farmers in one area, which will enable storage, processing and value addition of their produce.

"Arunachal Pradesh is a naturally organic state for spices cultivation and SFPCs are the need of the hour," the Minister said stressing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keenly interested in development of North Eastern states.
Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju in his address assured that Border Haats of local produce in the districts adjoining the Indo-Myanmar border will come up in near future.
State Industries minister Tamiyo Taga and Agriculture minister Wangki Lowang were present on the occasion.
The SFPCs will help farmers get better prices through post harvest management, primary processing, value addition, packing, aggregation and organic certification.

Each SFPC will have 500 farmers as members in a sub-division or district and they will be identified on cluster basis in a village and district by forming Farmer Interest Groups (FIGs), each consisting of 20 farmers.