OBJECTIVES OF THE SOCIETY

(A) The objectives of the Society are :

1. to catalyse agro-industrial growth in different parts of the state of Manipur based on the Principles of ecological sustainability, economic efficiency and social equity.

2. to undertake or assist in undertaking programmes for employment generation, growth and diversification of Agriculture and agro-based industries to increase food production and export of agriculture product, in both primary and processed forms;

3. to promote the employment of rural people especially women and socially disadvantaged sections and farmers, by improving their access to credit, technology and assured remunerative prices;

4. to organise technology transfer through training and extension involving non-government organisation and farmers association;

5. to identify gaps in the existing system and to effect co-ordination between Government, co-operatives, private sector and farmers with a view to provide a better return to the farmers and improve the employment potential;

6. to sponsor specific and relevant research projects and technology demonstration;

7. to organise farmers to help them take up various enterprises;

8. to organise input, material supply and production services through public, private and co-operative sector;

9. to disseminate information/technology to farmers and provide consultancy services to small cottage and village industries sector;

10. to identify and promote post-harvest processing/manufacturing units in the public private and co-operative sectors;

11. to promote organisation of marketing chains both for domestic and export marketing;

12. to revive and strengthen local institutions of the farming community as instruments of development process in agriculture sector;

13. to promote manufacture of innovative low cost machinery and equipment for farming and other employment generation activities in rural areas;

14. to organise/catalyse the primary producers in suitable groups towards the performance of activities related to the achievements of the objects of the Society;

15. to organise seminars, lectures, conferences, exhibitions, study tours for the farmers for the proper and better diffusion of useful knowledge in the science of modern agriculture and technical know how so as to enable the farmers to cope with the modern agriculture;

16. to prepare, print and publish papers, periodicals, monographs and books in furtherance of the objectives of the Society;

17. to receive, hold and possess the corpus fund and accept donations ( in cash or kind) grants of money, security, propriety of any kind and undertake and accept the management of any endowment trust, fund or donations, not consistent with the objectives of the Society;

18.  to act as the chanellising agency for Technology Mission for the Integrated Development of Horticulture in the North Eastern States.

(B)   Pursuant to the aforesaid objectives, the Society may:

1. make rules and by-laws for the conduct of the affairs of the Society and to add or amend them from time to time;

2. borrow money required for the purpose of the Society with or without security upon such terms and in such manner as may be determined by the Board of the society with the consent of the state Government;

3. invest any money of the Society not immediately required for any of its objects in such a manner as the Board may in its absolute discretion determine;

4. open Bank Accounts of any type including overdraft account and to operate the same in ordinary course of business;

5.  own, establish or have and maintain offices, branches and agencies for the purpose of carrying on its business;

6. Promote, form conduct or associate in the promotion, formation of conduct of companies subsidiaries, societies or such other association of persons as it may deem fit;

7. sell or dispose off the undertaking of the Society or any part thereof or such considerations as the Society may think fit, and in particular for shares, debentures or securities of any other company having objects altogether or in part similar to those of the society; and

8. enter into partnership or any joint venture with any company, society, association or person or to cooperate with or subsidise or assist in any way such company, society, association or any person

Establishment of Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium– especially for  implementation of Technology Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture in North Eastern States including Sikkim:

The horticulture sector, which includes fruits, vegetables, spices, plantation crops, floriculture, medicinal and aromatic plants, cashewnut, etc. have ample potentials for development, as compared to other crops, in the North Eastern (NE) Region (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim) in view of the diverse agro-climatic condition, varied soil type and abundance of rainfall, which has remained unexploited. The development of NE region has been examined by various Commissions and Committees, such as, S.P. Shukla Commission set up by the Planning Commission and M.S. Swaminathan Committee set up by the Ministry of Agriculture. These committees have recommended that integrated development of horticulture in a mission mode approach would foster rapid growth of the region. Accordingly, launching of Technology Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture in North Eastern region including Sikkim was announced by Prime Minister in a meeting with Chief Ministers of North Eastern states held on January, 21-22, 2000 at Shillong.

The Goals of the Mission are

• to establish convergence and synergy among numerous ongoing governmental programme in the field of horticulture development to achieve horizontal and vertical integration of these programmes to ensure adequate, appropriate, timely and concurrent attention to all the links in the production, post harvest and consumption chain.
   

• to maximize economic, ecological and social benefits from the existing investment and infrastructure erected for the horticulture development.
   

• to promote ecologically sustainable intensification, economically desirable diversification and skilled employment to generate value addition.
   

• to facilitate and promote the development and dissemination of eco-technologies based on the blending of the traditional wisdom and technology with frontier knowledge such as bio-technology, information technology and space technology.
   

• to provide the missing links in ongoing horticulture development projects.
   

The specific objectives of the Technology Mission are :

1. to improve productivity and quality of horticulture crops through up gradation of production/farming technologies.

2. to reduce post-harvest losses, and improve marketability of the produce and its availability to consumers.

3. to promote better utilization and increased consumption of the produce to ensure higher returns to farmers/producers and better nutritional health to the people.

4. to promote export.

5. to develop a strong base for transfer of technology and human resource development to support the developmental activities.

  The Mission has a structure of four mini-missions i.e. Research, Production and Productivity, Post Harvest Management, Marketing and Export; and Processing. Nodal agency for Mini Mission-I will be the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and for Mini Mission-II and III the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC). The Department of Food Processing Industry (DFPI) will be the Nodal agency for Mini Mission-IV.

The Technology Mission is to be implemented by Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC), New Delhi.

    The Technology Mission aims at achieving convergence and build synergy among numerous ongoing schemes through vertical and horizontal integration of the existing programmes and bridging the gaps through appropriate new programmes, to ensure adequate, appropriate, timely and concurrent attention to all the links in production, post-harvest and consumption chain. In pursuit of this, the existing schemes of the DAC, which have been operating for the development of agriculture but have relevance for horticulture, have been coverage. Schemes like National Watershed Development, Integrated Management of Insects, Pests and Diseases, scheme of Bio-fertilizers etc. are being integrated and the existing pattern of assistance provided through the scheme will now focus on horticulture. Further, the existing schemes of DAC, DFPI, ICAR, NHB, DMI, APEDA, NCDC etc., which are directly concerned, with the development of horticulture will become part of this Technology Mission.

     Department of Agriculture & Cooperation undertook wide-ranging consultations with each of the States of the North-Eastern Region before working out the proposal. Various components of the proposal have also been discussed in an inter-ministerial meeting. Based on these consultations, the Technology Mission has been conceived.