Highlighting various challenges faced by farmers of the state owing to lack of many facilities coupled with climate change impact, All Manipur Progressive Farmers Association (AMPFA) demanded the authority concerned to formulate agricultural policy of the state.
In a press conference held at Manipur Press Club on Thursday, one of the members of AMPFA Sapam Lukhoi said that though agriculture is the main source of income of the state, farmers have been facing many untold problems in their agricultural activities. Considering this, it is high time for the state government to formulate agricultural policy otherwise the state may lead to a hunger crisis in future.
He continued that many farmers had been shifting their paddy cultivation to vegetables based agricultural practices due to less profit. Apart from this, farmers do not have a proper market to sell their rice. This has compelled them to opt for a substitute for rice cultivation. The government should take up steps to procure the rice harvested by the farmers.
Moreover, with the soaring prices of petroleum products, farmers are unable to invest money for water pump irrigation facilities. As such, the state government should extend their support in providing electric power supply in agricultural lands at a subsidised rate, he added.
When it comes to seed distribution, the state government should provide high yielding variety seeds which are also resistant to pests or climate change. On top of this, they should provide the fertilisers on time, said Lukhoi.
He further said that as vegetables are perishable items, a proper storage system is much needed. Many times, a huge quantity of vegetables were wasted that led to huge losses to the farmers and so the state government should provide proper cold storage infrastructure in most of the places. Besides this, the authority concerned should provide a proper irrigation system to every farmland.
