Chief Minister Raghubar Das has called on farmers and lac producers of the State to produce more and do not worry about the marketing space. He for this purpose assured them to set up special board at the State level.
While addressing farmers as the chief guest in the Agriculture Fair cum Machines Exhibition at the Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums (IINRG) on Friday, the CM said the State Government would act in association with the Center in this regard.
“Farmers of the State should just focus on how to increase production and don’t worry about market and branding. This job would be done by CM Small and Cottage Industry Board. We would make a master plan together in 15 days in this regard for processing and marketing, etc,” said Das.
He also assured that the Government would make purchases of the produce and suggested the farmers involved into lac farming to adopt latest technology available. “There is immense scope of income generation in this field. We all have to work in the direction of making lac faming an industry. Processing plants would be setup near the farm areas,” said the CM.
He termed lac as multipurpose natural produce in which the country is the largest produce of the world. “Jharkhand produces 53 per cent of lac produced in the country. For us interest of farmers, people living in villages and poor are the priority. The Government is of the views that lac can drive people out of poverty. Farmers should plan more and more lac brooding trees, especially on dividers of farmland and generate additional income,” he added.
The CM stressed that lac farming can contribute in doubling farm income which is the target of the Governments both at the Center and the State and added that it cannot be done alone by farming. He also underlined some of the steps taken in the direction of honey production, poultry, goatery, dairy and processing units being setup. 600 farmers have been trained as master trainers for beekeeping in the State.
The CM also inaugurated an exhibition and inspected pilot plant setup there. Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma, MlAs Ram Kumar Pahan, Principal Secretary to the CM Sunil Kumar Barnwal, Agriculture Secretary Puja Singhal, Director of Jharcraft Manjunath Bhajantri, PCCF Sanjay Kumar, IINRG Director KK Sharma and several progressive farmers were present on the occasion.