Photo Courtesy: India Today Group
Aizawl: Mizoram landed 75.79 crore in central funding to boost its farm sector. Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan passed the release orders to Mizoram Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister P.C. Vanlalruata on September 29. This happened at the National Conference on Rabi Campaign in New Delhi. The cash split gives 27.84 crore to the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and 47.95 crore to the Krishonnati Yojana.
Vanlalruata laid out the brutal reality for local growers. He noted that poor roads choke off access to markets. Farmers often work land miles from their homes, and the monsoon season turns these trails into mud pits just as the oil palm harvest hits. He urged the Centre to fold agricultural link roads into the PM-RKVY scheme. "Many farmers cultivate land located far from their villages and face difficulties transporting their agricultural produce to markets," he stated.
The state is looking at high-tech fixes. Officials are currently building a monorail system to move crops. Vanlalruata also slammed the rigid, online-only application process for the Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanisation. He wants the Centre to allow offline applications for rural areas with bad internet. He asked for special treatment for hill states like Mizoram, arguing that existing rules fit flat plains but fail in the mountains. Finally, he asked the Centre to move fertilizers into the state by rail.
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