By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The State Government is trying to revive the culture of cooperative societies among the farmers in the rural areas.
The Government organised a one-day workshop at Hotel Polo Towers on Wednesday, to create awareness among the rural farmers on the importance to have cooperative societies in the agricultural sector.
Through these cooperative societies, the State Government aimed to help the farmers in adopting new technologies to enhance their production along with providing financial assistance to the farmers.
The Government is also embarking to act as the facilitators in helping the farmers with agricultural credits and funds from the various financial institutions.
Delivering his address during the inauguration of the one-day workshop, Additional Chief Secretary PBO Warjri said that the attempt of the Government to revive the cooperative societies in the agriculture sector is a very important initiative.
“In the past there were many cooperative societies in the rural areas who were doing a very good job. But with the passage of time many of these cooperative societies seized to exist,” Warjri said.
He said that the formation of these cooperative societies in the agricultural sector is important since it can play a major role towards creating an opportunities for the farmers to combine into one single force in order to increase their production capacity.
“We cannot deny the fact that one farmer alone would not have the capability of producing in bulk to meet the rising demands of the market since his land holding is very small. They would be able to produce in huge quantity only if they start their cultivation jointly,” Additional Chief Secretary said.
Taking up joint cultivation would allow the farmers to cultivate in a huge plot of land, he said while adding that this is the system which they are following in States like Punjab and Haryana.
Meanwhile, Warjri also emphasized that the farmers need to harmoniously co-exist for the cooperative societies to sustain and survives. “The major factor which prevents the cooperative societies to come up in a big way is that the individual farmer works with his own agenda,” Warjri said.
According to the Additional Chief Secretary, the individual members should also be made accountable especially on matters relating to money.
“It has been found that many of the cooperative societies collapse due to differences over financial matters,” he observed.
Meanwhile, the Additional Chief Secretary pointed out that the unity of the farmers would also deny middlemen from exploiting them. He however assured that the Government would provide all the assistance for enhancing their productivity. Besides providing with financial assistance, Additional Chief Secretary said that the Government would take all possible steps to help the farmers in finding the right market for selling of their agricultural produced.