Author: admin2

The State Government is planning to set up vegetable and fruit hubs in the districts in the western part of the State, said the Food Processing Minister at a recent seminar organised by the Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI).

He said that the western districts have the potential for satisfying even the entire demand of the State, if all forms of assistance are provided. Towards that end, the government has planned to set up the hubs.

The minister asked private investors to invest more in agriculture, which would help in the State realising its full potential. He said that the government would provide all manner of help for connecting the farmers with the investors.

Since 68 per cent of the State’s population do work related to agriculture, the State has a huge potential in the latter.

Source: Aajkaal

File Image

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday held a high-level meeting with the senior officials of various departments at Nabanna to issue directives to prevent dengue ahead of monsoon.

The CM instructed officials of various civic bodies to take adequate precautionary measures ahead of monsoon. She instructed the civic bodies and fisheries department officials to release Gappi in water bodies so that the fish can kill the mosquito larva. Various civic bodies and fisheries department have been releasing the fish to check the breeding of mosquitoes.

Mamata Banerjee stressed on the publications of advertisements so that people become aware about the preventive measures. The state Education department has also been asked to spread awareness among the school students. State health department has been instructed to conduct anti-dengue drive at regular intervals.

The CM said that ASHA and ICDS workers who have been doing door-to-door campaigns to create awareness among people will be asked to be more proactive. The ASHA workers will reach out to rural areas and will ensure that accumulation of water does not take place.

A Centre of Excellence (COE) in agriculture and horticulture is coming up in Chinsurah, Hooghly. It is a State Government project, in technical collaboration with Israel. The centre will come up by the end of this year.

This was announced by the secretary of the Food Processing Industries and Horticulture Department recently. She also said that modern agriculture is a very technology-intensive activity and so there is a good need for bringing in new techniques and technologies.

While originally the project was meant for potato cultivation, later on it was decided to adopt Israeli technology also for horticulture mechanisation, protected cultivation, nurseries, micro-irrigation, and post-harvest management.

The secretary further said that the government wants to set up three packaging houses in each district under the public-private partnership mode.

The Food Processing Minister, who also participated in the summit, said that the way forward for private investors in agriculture in Bangla is by adopting the participatory farming model, also known as contract farming.

In such a model, while farmers would provide the land and labour, private investors or entrepreneurs would provide the inputs and technology and bear the business risks to reap profit, not only for domestic markets but also for exports. The State Government will play the role of a facilitator.

Facilities like packaging houses, poly houses and subsidies will be provided by the government.

Source: Millennium Post, foodprocessingbazaar.com

File Photo

Baluchari is a quintessential silk sari of Bangla, made using richly dyed silk, with intricate motifs depicting Indian mythology woven onto its large ‘pallu’. The textile found a home in Bishnupur of Bankura district after its place of origin, Baluchar in Murshidabad, had succumbed to nature’s vagaries.

Even in Bishnupur, the designs, looms, weaving techniques and threads used, which mark the originality of the textile endured severe changes over time.

The launch of Bangla Government’s Baluchari project has revived the textile via a sharp spike in sale across the state.

The project, Baluchari is a collaboration between the West Bengal State Handloom Weavers’ Cooperative Society (Tantuja) and the State Directorate of Textiles. This project aims to revive the Baluchari textile by blending old and new designs while acknowledging the current trends and demands of the consumers. This new approach is responsible for the major success of the project. The project includes helping farmers in the cultivation of silk.

The project’s first manifestation was the opening of an exclusive showroom on Park Street, Kolkata in 2017. The store is also named Baluchari. The annual turnover of the showroom now runs into crores.

The store on Park Street sells not only sarees but also other articles with Baluchari patterns on them, like shoes, bags, wallets, belts, and also silk furnishings. The leather articles have silk patches with Baluchari weaving stuck on to them.

Baluchari sarees are sold through Tantuja outlets too, the primary brand of the Handloom Weavers’ Cooperative Society. Tantuja has 83 sales outlets across India. A significant amount of sales also happens through online platforms like Amazon and Flipkart.

The handloom fabrics for weaving Baluchari are procured from cooperative societies and artisans through 12 procurement centres and two training-cum-production centres.

Regarding the cultivation of silk, the other important component of the project Baluchari, the State Government runs 59 sericulture farms which cultivate superior-quality seeds. These seeds are then given to the farmers at a subsidised rate, who then produce the raw silk. The farmers earn good revenue from selling the raw silk to weavers.

Source: Millennium Post

File Photo

The State Environment Department has made plans to make all government hospitals free of plastics bags, which are non-biodegradable and hence harmful for the environment.

It plans to conduct awareness campaigns among patients and their relatives, requesting them not to use non-biodegradable plastic bags. Environment-friendly cloth bags would be supplied to the different wards of the hospitals.

Private agencies running their units inside government hospitals on private-public partnership (PPP) basis – like diagnostic centres – would also be requested to refrain from using plastic packets for giving the reports in and instead use cloth carry bags.

NRS Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata has already started implementing the measures. Others will follow suit soon.

Source: The Statesman

File Photo

The Matir Katha web portal, introduced in August 2017, is proving to be a big help for farmers. In one year, that is, 2018, a huge 1.6 lakh queries from farmers were answered through the portal. For the convenience of farmers, the entire website is in Bengali.

The State Government has a designated set of officers who are experts in various aspects of agriculture.

They can be reached through email, the addresses being given on the portal, or through the toll-free number, 18001031100, from Monday to Saturday, for 12 hours each day, that is, 7am to 7pm. This information is also given on the portal.

Now, for the many farmers who are not in a position to send email or call up, the government has designated 700 people as ‘krishi sahayaks’, or farmers’ assistants, across the 341 blocks of the State, and armed them with tabs.

These people get in touch with farmers and upload their queries on the website immediately for the experts to answer, which is conveyed back to the farmers.

They even upload pictures if required, taken through the camera of the tab, and upload them. For example, for queries related to seeds, fertilisers and insecticides, pictures are uploaded, which the experts see and then convey their views.

Thus these krishi sahayaks act as the intermediary between the farmer and the portal, and by extension, the government.

Hence, the State Government is using the system of e-governance to solve the problems of farmers, and has set up a system where a farmer need not be computer-literate to get his or her answer through the system.

Source: Ei Samay

File Photo