The minister recently visited ICAR-NRC for Orchids, Sikkim
Kailash Choudhary, Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare during his recent visit to the ICAR-National Research Centre for Orchids, Pakyong, Sikkim emphasised on lab-to-land programmes to enable the state to emerge as an organic destination for tourists and consumers.
The minister apprised the participants about the significant increase in the efforts of the Central Government for improving the socio-economic conditions of the farmers, especially, small and marginal farmers through the various schemes like Aatma Nirbhar Bharat, 1.5 times increment in MSP and Formation of 10,000 FPOs throughout the country.
Choudhary encouraged the farmers for utilising the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund to take-up the value-addition activities in agriculture. While visiting the laboratories and farms of the Centre, he also interacted with the farmers on the various aspects of Orchid Cultivation ranging from production to marketing.
The minister also launched two mobile apps — ’Orchid Pest Management’ developed for farmers to assist management of pests of orchids and OrchidMAN to assist the orchid collectors in recording the passport data during the collection of orchids on the occasion.
Loknath Sharma, Minister of Agriculture, Government of Sikkim urged the ICAR Institutes to work in collaboration with the state departments. He also encouraged the farmers to participate in the state government Mission on Swanirbhar Sikkim in agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry.
