Country’s largest Piggery Mission worth Rs 209 crore was rolled out here on Thursday for Meghalaya with an aim to bolster farmers’ income as well as make the northeastern State self sufficient in the production of pork which has a huge domestic market.
The integrated project has been launched as a partnership among the Northeastern State, central government and National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), a statutory Corporation under the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, which is providing a loan at low interest.
“The Meghalaya State Piggery Mission, supported by the NCDC will enable our State to achieve self-sufficiency in pork production, reduce our out-of-state import burden by nearly Rs 150 Crores annually and improve the incomes of over 25,000 households, totalling to an annual increment of Rs 70 Crores,” Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said here during the launch of the Rs 209 crore integrated piggery project.
The first tranche of the loan was released here by the NCDC in the presence of Union Minister of State (MoS) for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Kailash Choudhury, Meghalaya’s Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong and Corporation’s MD Sundeep Nayak among others.Sangma said that to encourage farmers, interest-free loan will be provided while shed for the pigs will be constructed under the MGNREGA convergence scheme.
“With interventions across the value chain, the Mission will provide a holistic overhaul of the sector. It will also open up more opportunities for export and food processing in the state,” Sangma added.Talking about the pork project, Nayak said it aims at quantum jump in hygienic pork production to cater to the demands of not only the North Eastern Region but also export to South East Asia.
“This project will benefit 35,000 pig farmers in the state and 5000 unemployed youth will get livelihood. This would provide regular source of income to members of 300 PACCS”, he added.
Because of certain inherent traits like better-feed conversion efficiency, early maturity and short generation interval, pig farming is seen as a lucrative business as compared to other livestock species.
More so because, pork has major market in Northeastern States, it can contribute to faster economic return to the farmers, particularly amid the ongoing Covid-19 which has negatively impacted their earning.
To bolster the State’s economy , the Sangma Government has already launched the Lakadong Mission, the Jackfruit mission, the Mushroom Mission, the Milk Mission and the Aquaculture Mission, which Sangma felt would among others catapult Meghalaya the State into the top ten Indian States in terms of Per Capita Income by 2030.