SHILLONG, JAN 15: Urging the farmers of the state not to depend only on subsidy provided by the state government for their prosperity, Meghalaya AH& Veterinary minister Deborah Marak said that the farming community must scale up their farming as there was a huge shortfall of meats and eggs in the state.
Inaugurating the 100 days festival organised by the AH and Veterinary department for livestock and poultry on Thursday, Marak informed that the state produces about 1049 lakhs of eggs and 822 lakhs litres of milk during 2013-14 financial years which does not meet the consumption demand of the state. She said, “We have to import these two items beside meat from outside the state to meet the state’s consumption demand.”
Marak informed that the consumption of meat per person in the state is annually 37.28 grams per day, milk 75 grams per person per day and egg 35 per person year and, therefore, the demand for these produces are high and farmers needs to work hard to meet these demands which in turn can generate employment and livelihood for the people of the state, especially the farmers.
Marak also said despite the financial crunch the state is going through, which she felt is the outcome of the NGT ban on coal mining, but the AH & Veterinary department can still help the farmers by giving them enough guidance and trainings to upscale their produces.
AH and Veterinary department parliamentary Kennedy C Khyriem, who was the guest of honour, said farmers around the world are the richest people and therefore felt that the state’s farmers need to work very hard to achieve the level of prosperity of their counterparts in other parts of the world.
Khyriem lamented by saying, “We have lot of farmers turning into a contractor because we don’t know how to make use of the resources that is available here.” He also said that festival organised by the department is to help and support the farmers.
Khyriem said that the state has many doctors, experts, centres and farmers must know how to make use of these facilities which helps and guide them to derive maximum benefit from their production. – By Our Reporter
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