In order to ensure the doubling of state’s farmers income,  the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare department of Tripura government has given loans to 2,72,588 farmers through ‘Kisan Credit Card’ in last four and half years with total sum of Rs.1,386.53 crore.

Addressing a press conference here at the Civil Secretariat on Wednesday afternoon,  Apurba Roy, the secretary of the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare department said that after the formation of the present government in 2018, the Agriculture department is working to increase food grain production and to double the income of farmers by improving their socio-economic status.

Highlighting the activities of the Agriculture department, Roy said that the government has started the procurement of paddy directly from farmers with minimum support price (MSP) and till date the government has procured 30,793 metric tons of paddy from 70,023 farmers by paying of  a sum of Rs.243.76 crore.

He said that the government  has decided to procure paddy weighing 35,000 metric tons from the state's farmers in the present month of December with enhanced Minimum support prices (MSP) and 35 thousand MT paddy will be procured at an enhanced rate of  Rs. 20.40 per kilogram.

He said that to procure 35, 000 MT paddy, the state government will have to spend Rs. 87.3 crore.

Roy also said that to increase the production of fruits and vegetables, the Horticulture department has also taken many initiatives  and under ‘Chief Minister Swanirbhar Parivar Yojana’ from the financial year 2021-22 to 2022-23, altogether 3.92 lakh families are brought under fruit cultivation. The department has also distributed different machineries to 4 lakh families for vegetable cultivation.

Mentioning the success of the Horticulture department, Roy also said that  about 874 hectare of lands are now covered  under Floriculture in the same financial years. He also said that the department has taken the initiative to cultivate palm oil on 530 hectares of land in the state and for this the central government has already paid Rs 3 .15 crore to the state government.

Roy said  that the government has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Banana Research Center at Tiruchirappalli of  Tamil Nadu for the production of 50,000 ‘sabri’ banana seedlings in the state through tissue culture technology.