SHILLONG, Feb 15: Several projects worth Rs 400 crore were launched by the state government during an event at the North-Eastern Hill University Convention Hall under the umbrella of ‘Meghalaya Next’ with the theme of ‘Agriculture and Sustainability’ here on Thursday.
Projects such as MegARISE, Meghalaya State Organic Mission, and Green Meghalaya (PES) were launched during the event.
MegARISE is aimed at protecting vulnerable catchment areas and conserving water on the same lines of enacting the State Water Policy.
The project’s scope extends to benefiting 106 villages across 39 micro-watersheds. The target groups for this project are communities from 71 villages in the 13 micro-watersheds in Umiew catchment and 35 villages from 26 micro-watersheds in Ganol catchment.
The Meghalaya State Organic Mission 2.0, on the other hand, aims to convert and sustain 1 lakh hectares of land into National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP)-certified organic cultivation in the next three years, compared to the current 22,000 hectares, in order to help the farmers sell their produce at higher rates.
Additionally, Sangma distributed cheques to beneficiaries of FOCUS.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said, “…in the last two years, we have distributed over Rs 100 crore to over 2 lakh families in different parts of the state as a first crunch and first part of our programme (FOCUS).”
“We aspire to touch 50 thousand farmers which is a massive exercise but the process is on,” he added.
He also distributed around Rs 12 crore under GREEN Meghalaya and an initiative implemented under the Payment for Ecosystems Model also known as ‘PES’.
“We are trying to prevent people from damaging the forests. We have been able to cover 50,000 hectares in a matter of 2 years. And we are targeting 1.5 lakh hectares now,” the CM said.
Furthermore, Sangma virtually inaugurated 12 processing units and three cold storages across the state, in an aim to boost food processing.
