‘Nagas panic at blockades because state is dependent’

Farmers get free power tillers amid hopes for agri boost  [caption id="attachment_115737" align="alignnone" width="560"] YM Yollow Konyak with officials of the Agriculture department and beneficiaries of power tillers that were distributed to farmers on Tuesday in Dimapur. (EM Images)[/caption] Dimapur, May 16 (EMN): The fact that Nagaland panics every time neighbouring states such as Assam announce economic blockades reflects how dependent the Naga people are on others. A legislator said on Tuesday that the dependence on others establishes even more the ‘lackadaisical’ attitude of the Naga people. The department of Agriculture Nagaland has distributed farm machinery, specifically power tillers, to 38 progressive farmers from the state. The power tillers were distributed to them for free on Tuesday at a programme that was conducted as part of a sub mission of agriculture mechanisation for 2016-2017 at the Central Store in Dimapur. Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture YM Yollow Konyak was the chief guest of the programme. Yollow addressed farmers and officials of the Agriculture department at the event. Agriculture is the most important economic activity for a state like Nagaland which has been practising farming for time immemorial, he said. However, he said, ‘Every time there is an economic blockade in Assam, the Nagas’ start to panic because we are mostly depended on their resource which establishes the lackadaisical attitude of the Naga people.’ He called for study of the ‘technical problems faced by the farming community as an expert in the field,’ the legislator asserted. With technology, the practice of farming has also changed and local farmers too need to advance accordingly, the parliamentary secretary. Further, Konyak reminded the farmers that the Nagas people have ‘not died of starvation because cultivation has been an important activity.’ If farmers claim to being unable to practise farming, that would be a lie, he remarked. Accordingly, the parliamentary secretary urged the farmers and the department to work together ‘with dedication to progress and uphold the age-old practice of agriculture which is the main source of income for the state.’ Yollow suggested to the department that ‘in case of natural calamities’ the department should ‘take responsibility in providing relief to the farmers to motivate them.’ He has assured to assign district agriculture officers to ‘monitor diligent farmers and award them.’ Further, the legislator asked the officials to also map out agriculture link roads ‘without bias’ for the cause of progress and productive farming in Nagaland. A joint director of the Agriculture department, Helie Rupreo, also said during the event that 70% of the Naga people are farmers. Yet, he said, the state still falls short of agriculture produce. The Nagas are into farming for self requirement and therefore ‘we need to contemplate on venturing into marketing,’ Rupreo said. “The state’s agriculture system cannot be compared to other states’ and we should focus on marketing not only locally but globally,” the official said. ‘We need machineries for which the department has under the sub mission on agriculture mechanisation provided free power tillers to farmers.’ Maintaining that the machines that had been provided were expensive, he urged the farmers to make use of them productively. He encouraged them to contribute to self-employment ‘by imparting education to their respective community as well. A 66-year old beneficiary who have been into farming for the last 50 years speaking on behalf of beneficiaries accounted that farmers do not have ways to market their products, therefore taking opportune of the day he requested the department to initiate agri link road for better feasibility of the farmers. Also, the deputy director of the central store, Olem Jamir, said during the vote of thanks that farmers were the responsibility of the Agriculture department. He informed them that the maintenance cost for the power tillers will be borne by the department.