Farmers Interactive Meeting held under Songsak Block
TURA:The much touted National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development’s (NABARD) Kisan Credit Card Scheme appears to have little or no takers among the farming community, particularly of East Garo Hills, bringing to light the poor interaction between farmers and NABARD officials, it has been found. A highly published Kisan Scheme of the Prime minister was also found t5o have failed to reach the farming sector.
The KCC is a credit scheme introduced by Indian banks through NABARD to provide term loans and agricultural needs to farmers.
A Farmers interactive program organised for over 350 farmers from 50 interior villages under Songsak Community and Rural Development Block on Wednesday revealed the state of affairs with the KCC scheme in the Garo Hills region.
Deputy Commissioner of East Garo Hills, Swapnil Tembe, had attended the program alongside the Block Development officer, District Development Manager, NABARD officials, District Agriculture And Farmers Welfare Officer, District Program Manager of DRDA, BAKDIL NGO and representatives from IIM Bangalore.
The program held at Samin Songkama village, where a Farmers Training School named Farm Based Education Livelihood School is currently under construction, witnessed active participation by the farmers from the region.
Deputy Commissioner Tembe while interacting with farmers had enquired about the number of farmers received benefit under the PM KISAN program.
To his shock he found that not a single farmer from the assembled farmers had so far received benefit from the PM Kisan scheme prompting him to direct the Agriculture Officer to look into the matter and ensure maximum farmers are made eligible to receive benefit of the scheme.
There was more in store when it was further found that none among the nearly 350 farmers present had ever availed from NABARD’s KCC Scheme. The deputy commissioner directed the concerned officials to look into the issue at the earliest.
Appreciating Bakdil for bringing up the farmers training school under Songsak Block given that most farmers from East Garo Hills happen to be from Songsak and Rongjeng blocks, the deputy commissioner said that the newly functioning Krishi Vigyan Kendra, a district level institution engaged in transfer of latest agricultural technologies to the farmers, would be able to provide assistance to farmers of the region in a big way.
He also exhorted the farmers to make use of the SHG and Farmers Market that has been set up in William Nagar and called upon Bakdil to provide the handholding support for linking SHGs with the newly established Market.
Raising awareness about the importance of green vegetables in children’s diet, Tembe said that consumption of vegetables has been linked to brain development of children. He called upon Bakdil and farmers to collaborate and ensure the increase in vegetable production. The District Development Manager of NABARD spoke about financial inclusion, doubling farmers Income by 2022 and especially use of KCC. During her speech she said that according to the latest guidelines ,KCC can also be used for livestock and Dairy Development. She also harped on the need for credit linkage for SHGS because Bakdil is implementing one SHG formation project in Songsak Block.
The Block Development Officer of Songsak Development Block exhorted the farmers to form SHGS as SHGs is a platform for socio economic well being . She also earnestly appealed to the farmers to engage in integrated farming system and not to depend on single drop system.
Taking part in the deliberations, the District Agriculture and Famers Welfare Officer spoke about improving farming through especially through second cultivation of paddy for which he said that traditional varieties cannot be used except for high yielding variety. He said the department also has scheme for subsidised power tiller supply and almost Rs 90000 is available as subsidy. He requested the farmers to submit the list without any further time loss so that seeds etc can be arranged for the farmers.
The DPM, DRDA, William Nagar spoke about the importance of water conservation under Jal Shakti Ahiyan. He said that every household should take up some activity or other for water conservation and shared various ways of water conservation. Bakdil has targeted to form at least 50 SHGs and 50 Farmers Club within next three months when a review will be undertaken on the first Sunday of December.
Fr Sunny Joseph, Director of BAKDIL NGO earlierpresented the key note address and Rakseng Marak, Team Leader of Bakdil in Songsak, spoke about the issues faced by the farmers. The farmers also brought up issues related to MGNREGS, road connectivity etc during the interaction with officials .