Port Blair, Mar 15: A training program for farmers was organized in the premises of Community hall, Ograbraj to train the farmers on Organic Method of farming, Honey Production and Coconut and its by-products.
Shri. Hemant B Songadkar, GM, NABARD presided over the function as Chief Guest and Shri. R.Y.Singh, Jt.Director (Agri) & Project Director (ATMA) was the guest of honour. In his address Shri. Hemant B Songadkar, GM NABARD lauded ARPAN and HORTISAN for bringing together farmers and registering two Farmer Producer Organisation in the these Islands, he stressed upon the need of synergy of efforts among various departments of the administration and Local Self Government in order to achieve the objectives of the Farmer Producer Organisations. He spoke at length about Farmer Producer Organization and said that a farmer producer organization is a legal entity formed by primary producers (farmers) which, apart from selling their products directly to the company thus removing all the middlemen and providing sharing of profits among the members and thus becoming the owner of the company.
Shri. R Y Singh, Jt.Director,Agri. dwelled upon the need to adopt organic method of farming and reiterated his departments commitment to work towards an Chemical free Island. He requested the progressive farmers to form clusters from different areas and avail assistance from the department for organic farming. He reiterated the importance of Farmer Producer Organization and asked the progressive farmers to join such producer companies for better returns on their produces.
Shri. M A Salam, Ex-Director, Agriculture, President HORTISAN and Honorary Member, ARPAN spoke at length about Coconut and its by-products. He informed the participants about”Andaman Pragati Coconut Proudcer Co. Ltd.” which was one among the first few Farmer Producer Company of this Island and informed that an area of 2000 Sq.Mtrs of land has been allotted by the Administration to the company for setting up integrated Coconut processing unit at Mithakhari industrial estate and that the construction work at the site is going on in full swing. In the first phase the said company intends to produce packaged tender coconut water for local market and for exports. The product shall be marketed as Andaman Brand.
Shri. Mohan Halder, Pradhan, Gram Panchayat, Chouldhari spoke about the difficulties being faced by the farmers to sustain with conversion to Organic method of Farming. In the past many efforts was made by the Agriculture department by introducing subsidy scheme for construction of vermin compost units etc. but many of the farmers, although constructed the unit but could not replace the chemical fertilizers completely for reasons unknown and requested the department to implement long term plan for such noble cause.
Shri. Abdul Basheer K, Chairman, Organic Producer Co. and Shri. C J Joseph, Chairman Apiary Producer Co. spoke about Organic Farming and Honey Production. Both stressed on the need to get into integrated method of farming for better returns and asked the farmers to join hands with the producer company as share holders.
The meeting was also attended by Shri.Jaiprakash, Manager NABARD, Shri. B K Biswas, Ex-Jt.Director, Agri., Shri. V K Salam, Sarpanch, GP Mithakhari and Smti. Jharna Singh, Director, Apiary Producer Co.
Earlier Shri. N M Bashir, Chairman, ARPAN welcomed the gathering and Shri. Abdul Basheer K, Chairman Organic PC proposed vote of thanks. The progressive farmers were later taken to Shri. A Samsuddin’s field for an exposure visit.
The Program was conducted as part of the Project “Promotion of Farmer Producer Organization” supported by NABARD and implemented by ARPAN in association with HORTISAN.
