Agartala, Jun 30, 2022, By Special Correspondent

Agartala, Jun 30: It is about 44 per cent and more people in the state Tripura depending on agricultural sector and the state primarily an agraian economy. In view to consider this matter, the government has been trying level best to increase farmers’ income as double with the help of government sponsored schemes in the state Tripura.

In order to improve the farmers’ income, the technical support from ICAR important for doing agricultural activities with the support from scientists in the state Tripura because the contribution of agriculture to the GSDP was about 30 in 2019-20 in Tripura. The Small and Marginal Farmers constitute about 96 per cent of the total farmers in the State against 78 per cent, that of country. Agriculture and allied activities are still the backbone of the State’s economy in Tripura.

The state Tripura is also considered as marginal farmers’ state because of small land size issue and the aggregation of small, marginal and landless farmers into FPOs will help to enhance economic strength & market linkages of farmers for enhancing their income. Keeping this in mind, Government of India has launched a new Central Sector Scheme titled "Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Produce Organizations (FPOs)" with a clear strategy and committed resources to form and promote 10,000 new FPOs in the country with budgetary provision of Rs 6865 crore.

There is a FPO called Bagma Agri Producer Company Limited (BAPCL) here at Bagma in Udaipur subdivision of Gomati District guided by NABARD, Tripura Regional Office doing well under seed village project with the financial support of NABARD and technical support of ICAR to produce paddy seeds for the benefit of Tripura farmers at large in view to provide quality and environmentally satisfied paddy seeds for production in Tripura with low cost and minimum number of inputs, said Sudip Majumder, Chairman BAPCL.

The ICAR in Tripura has developed different verities of rice seeds with the collaboration of farmers in Tripura. There are few verities of rice namely Hakuchuku, Tripura Nirog, Tripura Chikan,Gomati and other verities those are really demanded in state among farmers for unique qualities of these seeds and the FPO like BAPCL has been doing level best to go ahead with the guidance of ICAR Scientist Dr. S.P Das for the creation of more verities of paddy seeds in Tripura in future.