MANGALDAI, June 26 � The Minister for Water Resources, Fisheries and SC Development, Basanta Das on Thursday launched the Seed Village Scheme � 2015-16 for Darrang district with the beginning of the distribution of the foundation sali paddy seeds of the high yielding Swarna Sub-1 variety among the poor and marginal farmers under as many as 55 seed demonstration village in the district.
Addressing the beneficiary farmers present, Das urged them to properly utilise the high yielding seeds to get maximum production. However, he resented that farmers from the main- stream of the Assamese community residing in areas under Paschim Mangaldai Development Block cultivate sali paddy only once in a year unlike the farmers belonging to the immigrant religious minority community under the Pub Mangaldai Development areas who keep themselves busy for multiple cropping in a year.
He appealed to the farmers to undertake multiple cropping including integrated farming of fish, duckery, piggery etc., along with sali cultivation. The ceremonial distribution function, held on the premises of the District Agriculture Office here, was conducted by Nila Kanta Deka, District Agriculture Officer. Nayanjyoti Pathak, Circle Officer, Mangaldai Revenue Circle, Nilamani Sarma, Executive Engineer, Agriculture, Mangaldai Division, Chandan Barua, Member, Darrang Zilla Parishad and Basundhar Saikia, Manager, Assam Seed Corporation, Mangaldai branch also spoke on the occasion.
It may mentioned here that under each seed village, there will be 155 farmer beneficiaries and each such village is going to receive 12 quintals of foundation seeds, from which they can produce certified seeds for their own use, or sell it to other farmers of their locality.The function was attended by more than a hundred farmers belonging to recent flood-hit villages like Punia, Pakabangipara, Na-Howli etc., under Paschim Mangaldai Development Block .
