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Our Correspondent
Imphal, June 15 (EMN): Manipur Chief Minister, N Biren Singh on Tuesday said that the government was addressing the key challenges of agriculture in the state and the NE region, including low productivity, smallholdings, under utilisation of irrigation potential and inadequate infrastructure along the supply chain.
He was speaking at the inaugural session of a national virtual workshop organised by Indian Council of Agricultural Research(ICAR) Northeast Hill Region, Manipur on the topic 'Potential Crops of North East India: Prospects and Challenges'.
Manipur’s agriculture minister, O Lukhoi Singh, Commissioner (Agriculture), M Joy Singh, Deputy Director General (NRM) ICAR, Dr. SK Chaudhari, Director(ICAR-NEH Region) Meghalaya, Dr. VK Mishra, Director ICAR-ATARI(Meghalaya), Dr. AK Tripathi, Director Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan (VPKAS) Uttarakhand, Dr. Lakshmi Kant and Co-ordinator(AICRN on potential crops) New Delhi, Dr. Hanuman Lal Raiger attended the virtual event.
Biren Singh said that agriculture continues to be the mainstay for the majority of the population in Manipur and the NE region, which is endowed with diverse agro-climatic conditions with varied soil types and abundant rainfall. As a result, there is huge potential for promising agricultural and horticultural produce and value-added products that can be marketed within the country and abroad.
In his speech agriculture minister, Lukhoi Singh said that the state Agriculture department is working along with ICAR with its full scientific and technical support. In the state government’s strategy for self-sustained agriculture through double cropping, production of 9 lakh MT of rice is being targeted against the present production of 5.10 lakh MT by increasing the seed replacement rate from the existing 20% to 60%. With new varieties of rice coming up from ICAR, he also expressed hope that the target production of rice would be achieved within five years in the state. He also acknowledged ICAR's collaboration with the state Agriculture department in proper distribution of the high yielding variety of rice seeds particularly RC Maniphou-13, which is the highest demand variety in Manipur.
Commissioner (Agriculture) Joy Singh said that the state government constituted a sub-committee for enhancement of rice production in Manipur.
After rounds of discussions, the sub-committee made recommendations like increase in seed replacement rate, increase of cropping intensity, enhancement of irrigation facilities, adoption of more intensive cultivation practices, maintaining soil health, providing judicious soil nutrients, facilitation of credit finance crop insurance, marketing and creation of rural storage infrastructures, farm mechanisation etc. for increase in rice production. Earlier, eight different crop varieties introduced by ICAR Manipur centre were also released. The three rice varieties were RC Maniphou 14, RC Maniphou 15 and RC Maniphou 16 while the two maize varieties introduced for the first time in Manipur were RC Manichujak 1 and RC Manichujak 2. On the other hand, two varieties of Perilla introduced for the first time in the country were RC Manithoiding 1 and RC Manithoiding 2, while the variety of Brinjal was RC Manikhamen 1. They also virtually distributed agricultural inputs including 10 tonnes of certified seeds of RC Maniphou-13 to about 1000 farmers.