Chief Minister Raghubar Das stressing over reduction of input cost coming into farming appealed to the farmers to go for modern techniques. He added that the change of methodology is a prerequisite to attain the goal to double farm income by 2022.

Addressing the second batch of 21 progressive farmers on Saturday which is departing for Israel to a get to know the techniques about modern farming, irrigation and horticulture etc, the CM said the effort would help them in achieving the goal.

“Farmers should adopt modern techniques in order to minimise their input cost and enhance productivity. Cost of farming is growing constantly. The Government is taking the step to send farmers to Israel for that very purpose. The farmers would play the role of master trainers for the others after they return,” said the CM. 

He added that the goal to double farm income by 2022 is not possible by traditional farming methods and stressed over the need to promote horticulture, dairy, organic fruits and vegetable production, fishery etc besides that.

“The Government is organising Global Food and Agriculture Summit in Ranchi which would help farmers to learn some of the latest practices apart from ideas to market their products and process them as per the demand. This would help them in getting more income,” said Raghubar Das in the presence of his Principal Secretary Sunil Kumar Barnwal and Agriculture Secretary Pooja Singhal.

He also told farmers to form cooperatives in their respective areas and underlines the steps like provision of farm mechanism on subsidy, large number of 30 MT capacity cold storages to change the way farming and post-harvest are being done.

“The job of farmers’ cooperatives would be to manage the cold storages coming up in different parts of the State. Also cooperative model of farming would be adopted where land holders would be paid as well for the labour they put in. Now the State should decisively move towards organic farming that can fetch better prices and demand for the produce,” said the CM informing the group of farmers about separate agriculture feeder for electricity.

The batch of farmers would be led by Dumka DC Mukesh Kumar. Gumla DC Shashi Ranjan and several other officials of the Agriculture Department would accompany the farmers to Israel.