IMPHAL, Jan 1 - The Manipur Organic Mission Agency (MOMA) received the Jaivik India Award 2018 as the best State Government agency in the northern and the North East region of the country in the field of organic farming. Uttarakhand and Punjab bagged the second and third position respectively.
The award was presented to State officials by Union Minister for Commerce and Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu during an award distribution ceremony held concurrently with the national roadshow of the Organics and Millets International Trade Fair in New Delhi on December 28.
Director of the State Horticulture Department K Kipgen and Project Director of MOMA K Debadutta Sharma received the award which consists of a memento and a citation. The Jaivik India Awards are sponsored by the International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture in association with the Government of Karnataka, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority and organic stakeholders since 2017-2018.
A reception for the award-winning MOMA team was held here on Monday in which Horticulture and Soil Conservation Minister Thounaojam Shyamkumar lauded the State officials for the organic movement initiatives. Principal Secretary (Horticulture and Soil Conservation) JC Ramthanga and the Director of Horticulture K Kipgen attended the reception.
Appreciating the hard work put in by organic farmers and department officials, the minister said MOMA has a vision to transform Manipur into a healthy and prosperous State through organic agriculture. It has been implementing the Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region under the Ministry of Agriculture for the last two-and-a-half years.
So far the MOMA has registered 5,000 organic farmers engaged in 5,000 hectares of agricultural land as beneficiaries of the initial phase of the organic scheme and started production of pineapple, orange, lemon, king chilli, ginger, turmeric and chahao (black aromatic rice).
Besides, 250 farmer interest groups comprising 20-25 farmers each have been formed to facilitate organic farming on a cluster basis for better implementation of the scheme, official sources said.