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Shillong, October 18, 2022: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Tuesday said that through Focus & Focus + programme, the farming communities in the State close to 4.5 lakhs will avail ₹ 500 cr annually.

“Our farmers will get almost close to ₹ 500 cr in their accounts every year and if you multiply this for 10 years, it will be ₹ 5000 cr. This money will revolve amongst our farmers, producers groups in the State and they can decide on the best ways to use the funds,” the Chief Minister said, while addressing an event to celebrate the success of FOCUS programme at Nongstoin in West Khasi Hills.

Focus and Focus + are flagship initiatives of the Government that provides financial aid and cash benefit of ₹ 5000 each to farmers producer groups (PGs) and individuals respectively. Under both the programmes, an individual farmer in every rural household across Meghalaya will have a cash benefit of   ₹ 10000 each.

During the event, the beneficiaries of Focus, the Producer Groups were given cheques, while beneficiaries of Focus + were given the ‘Focus Card’. The funds under Focus + will be released in installments to the beneficiaries. Through FOCUS in the district of West Khasi Hills, a total of 1957 PG members household were sanctioned an amount of ₹ 5000 per Household amounting Rs 62,85,000/- ( Sixty two lakhs and eighty five thousand) an amount of ₹1000 per household will be released as first instalment and the remaining 4000 as second instalment.

The Chief Minister also handed over Community Investment Funds of ₹1.14 Crore to support women Self Help Groups for 44 village organisations. The financial assistance under Yess Meghalaya to youth organisations and piglets and chicks under ‘Progress’ scheme were also distributed.

Talking about the SHG movement and its impact on livelihood and income generation, the Chief Minister said that in the last four years the SHG groups have increased from merely 4500 in 2017-18 to about 42000 at present.

“In the past only ₹ 50 cr was disbursed to SHGs across the State but from 2018 till date, despite 2 years of Covid-19 pandemic, the Government has been able to disburse ₹ 380 cr to different SHGs in the State,” he stressed.

He also informed that under different mission mode programmes for farmers welfare, the Government has invested more than 700 cr to support farmers and leverage farming activities. “Through the various mission mode programmes in the past 4.5 years the Government has worked to bring a turnaround in the different farming sectors. We are working with a vision of doubling farmers’ income and have maximum impact at the grassroots through these interventions”, he added.

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.