Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma launched the Assam Millet Mission on November 16 in Guwahati. The Mission is mandated to expand and increase millet cultivation across the State.
Addressing the gathering, Chief Minister Dr. Sarma termed the day as a historic one. “The day which marks the launching of Assam Millet Mission is targeted to raise the nutrition quotient and doubling of farmers’ income. The mission will also increase crop productivity and contribute to crop diversification,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that the mission has been launched in synergy with the Prime Minister’s clarion call for atmanirbharata. “With the launch of the millet mission, the farmers of Assam can diversify their cropping practices and other than conventional crops, they can extend their farming to grow millets,” Dr Sarma said.
He congratulated the Agriculture Department for taking the initiatives in launching the millet mission which in the beginning will be practised in 25,000 hectare crop land, which in due course will be doubled to 50,000 hectares.
Along with launching the Millet Mission, Chief Minister Dr. Sarma also inaugurated six Soil Testing and Quality Control Laboratory at Bongaigaon, Morigaon, Udalguri, Golaghat, Karimganj and Darrang and two knowledge centres at Dhemaji and Titabor through the virtual mode at the same programme.
Synchronizing with the programme, Chief Minister Dr. Sarma also started the process of distributing 126 combined harvester, 1000 mini trucks, 450 village level farm machinery bank, 12,000 Solar PV Pump Set, 8,500 five HP Diesel Pump set, 5,091 power tillers, seeds 2,23,963 quintals, 1,461 multipurpose pulveriser.
Dr. Sarma urged upon the farmers to take the advantage of Mission Basundhara 2.0 and convert the status of their lands to patta land.
Agriculture Minister Atul Bora while speaking on the occasion gave a brief outline of the schemes of his department.
