Govt sets up Digital Centre in Delhi to empower farmers across India
The Command Centre will show all the digital innovations being made in the field of agriculture by the ministry on a big screen.
Following the success of Sufal Bangla Project, the state government has decided to expand the scheme to provide further benefits to farmers and consumers.
Considering its successful running in the state, Mr Tapan Dasgupta, agriculture marketing minister said: “Already 67 Sufal Bangla outlets, including counters and mobile vans, are running in the state. The ministry is now planning to extend the number to 100 by June 2018, of which north and south Bengal will also be a part.”
The West Bengal Agricultural Marketing Department had introduced the Sufal Bangla scheme in 2014 to directly procure fruits and vegetables from farmers and sell them to consumers from various marketing centres.
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Another aspect of the initiative was to provide employment opportunities to the unemployed people associated with the ‘Sufal Bangla’ programme.
Presently 21 ‘Sufal’ counters and 46 mobile vans are working fullfledged in a fixed pattern of time and location across the state. The initiative by the state government was to facilitate the farmers and the consumers simultaneously.
On one hand,, farmers are getting fair price for the vegetables produced by them as no intermediaries are involved and the agricultural produce is directly procured from the cultivators. On the other hand, the consumers getting products at a lower rate at ‘Sufal Bangla’ counters are benefited financially.
“Meat and eggs including koyal and chicken will also be available at these counters,” said the agro marketing minister. “Mother Dairy payesh, another delicacy, will also be available at these 100 counters across the state,” he added.
Talking about the extensions in Kolkata, Mr Goutam Mukherjee, director of Sufal Bangla for Kolkata region, said that new outlets are to be brought up in areas like Behala, Kankurgachhi, Salt Lake, Rajarhat and Hedua. Two or more counters are also to be erected in Alipore.
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