GUWAHATI, April 26 - With an aim to enhance earning and ensure the required technology intervention, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) along with non-governmental organisation Kalong Kapili launched a farmers-producers organisation (FPO) specially for piggery activity at Laopani under Raha Development Block of Nagaon district today.
Launching the FPO, Ranjit Kumar, Assistant General Manager of NABARD called upon the farmers to come together and do their own business with value addition.
Kumar said that NABARD was looking towards a radical change in the rural economy of the State through the FPOs that have been set up.
�To usher in change among the farmers, it is pertinent to do away with the middlemen. Farmers have been deprived of their due prices because the middlemen have been exploiting them with impunity over the years. We believe the FPOs will do away with the system of middlemen and the farmers will be able to transact direct business and thereby improve their standard of living,� said Kumar, adding that the farmers will be provided with a series of basic trainings, besides some specialised training as well.
Kumar urged the farmers present on the occasion to dream big and become entrepreneurs. �If each farmer starts dreaming big, definitely the economy of Assam is going to improve considerably,� he said.
It needs to be mentioned that around 200 pig farmers took membership of the FPO that has been christened as Janakalyan Producer Society. Jyotish Talukdar of Kalong Kapili informed that the members of the FPO will be offered technical support for scientific pig farming.
A majority of the pig farmers hailing from villages like Laopani, Mithaimari, Boramari, Soru Amri, Kamargaon, Hathigarh and Lathabari etc. on the Nagaon-Karbi Anglong border are Scheduled Tribe people, while a small percentage belong to Scheduled Caste and Other Backward Classes as well.
�All the pig farmers of these areas are involved in traditional pig farming, hence their earnings were limited. The main objective of forming an FPO is to provide technical support as well as credit and marketing linkage in a cluster approach so that these marginalised section can enhance their income,� said Jyotish.
The State Veterinary Department of Nagaon district and Assam Gramin Vikash Bank�s Chaparmukh branch have also come forward to help the pig farmers.
Others dignitaries who attended the function include Alakesh Dey, DDM of NABARD, Nagaon, Rabijit Choudhury, Senior Agriculture Development Officer of Nagaon, Babul Bora, former Regional Manager of AGVB and RN Baruah, Veterinary Officer of Raha Block, Nagaon.
