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Tura, December 20, 2021:  In order to promote the quality of honey produced by the beekeepers across the state, to provide better packaging and better marketing facility, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma handed over bee boxes to Master beekeepers of Garo Hills in the presence of Deputy Commissioner, West Garo Hills, Ram Singh, General Manager, MBMA, A. Suting and other officials and public leaders at Tura on Monday.

In his address, the Chief Minister said that the government is now launching the Apiculture Mission 2.0 with the objective of building the capacities of the individuals engaged in honey value chain and enhance honey production, processing and marketing capacity in the state. The Mission 2.0 would build on the achievements and lessons learnt from the first Apiculture Mission he said.

To this effect the State Government has sanctioned 60 crore of rupees as total outlay for Apiculture, out of which Rs 40 crore is to be borne direct from the government while Rs.20 crore will be financial linkage component. Through this initiative it is expected to get a yield of 700 MT of honey production and revenue of Rs. 55 crore from sale of honey from second year. Stating that the demand for local honey is very high, the Chief Minister was confident that the state would be able to collect revenue of even more than 55 crore with better packaging of the product.

Simultaneously, the Chief Minister also distributed cheques amounting to over 2.80 crores of rupees to collective marketing centres (CMCs) owned by selected integrated village cooperative societies (IVCSs), entrepreneurs of Garo Hills for aggregation, processing and marketing of products under Megha-LAMP at a programme organized by MBMA.

Giving away the cheques to the beneficiaries, the Chief Minister said that the biggest problem for every government is solving the issue of unemployment. However, if one cooperative society or entrepreneur can start a production unit or processing factory on a large scale it can give employment to hundreds of youth in a particular area, he added. He also said that while the government was providing this kind of support to the entrepreneurs and unemployed youths, the success would eventually rest on their hands depending on how hard they strive to build up their enterprise.

The Chief Minister also gave away certificates to youths who successfully completed 3-month training in Masonry/plumbing conducted by Bakdil under MBMA at Bakdil Training Centre recently.

Initiatives : Agriculture

Launch of “Restart Meghalaya Mission’ on 15th August 2020

The Mission comprise of a series of interventions to support farmers and entrepreneurs by enabling them to build growth-promoting basic infrastructure and services. Under this Mission, 1917iTEAMS – the IT Platform aimed at enabling farmers access to agricultural information, crop advisories and markets will be expanded logistically through induction of another 100 vehicles.

Creation of the Directorate of Food Processing on May 2018

With the objective of seizing opportunities in the sector and the untapped food processing potential of the state for uplifting the livelihoods of farmers and value chain actors, the Government of Meghalaya created the Directorate of Food Processing (DFP) as a one-stop agency to handle all matters relating to food processing in the state and to deal with all central government Ministries and Agencies (viz. Ministries of Agriculture, and Food Processing, SFAC, NCDC, NABARD, etc.) in all matters pertaining to the development of agricultural food processing sector.

First Ever Farmer’s Parliament held on 4th - 5th December 2018

The parliament was organised by the state department of agriculture in collaboration with Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA) and the Hill Farmers' Union (HFU). As a step toward the promotion of new technologies, HFU with the support of Meghalaya government, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence App for farmers — called Nongrep (nongrep in Khasi language means farmer) with its software partner Impetus Solutions from Hyderabad — as a social innovation project. This app will address matters of farm aggregations, soil health and disease identification, crop yield, farm produce pickups, market linkage and retail sellers app.

Launch of the Farmer’s Portal on 7th May 2018

The Meghalaya Famers’ Portal (www.megfarmers.gov.in) of the Department of Agriculture is a platform for farmers to seek any information related to agriculture. Detailed information on farmers’ insurance, agricultural storage, crops, extension activities, seeds, pesticides, farm machineries, etc. is provided. Details of fertilizers, market prices, package and practices, programmes, welfare schemes are also given.

Awards & Recognitions
  • Meghalaya has been selected for the Commendation award in 'Total foodgrains Category-III' for 2017-18. The award consists of a citation and an amount of Rs. 1 crore.
  • Meghalaya Agriculture Department and the MIE Meghalaya Team won the '7th eNabling North East (eNorth East) Award 2019-20' in the 'Agriculture & Rural Development' category for 1917 iTEAMS project which is a project in collaboration with Digital India.
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi awarded Meghalaya on May 2018 the Krishi Commendation Award for the year 2015-16, in recognition of the commendable foodgrains production achieved by the State.
  • Meghalaya has been adjudged the Most Improved Small State in the category of Agriculture and received the India Today – "The State of the States” Award on 23rd November 2018.