Shillong, 28th November 2024: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma launched the Community Public Private Partnership (CPPP) program on Wednesday for the benefit of setting up Large Processing Units in Meghalaya. Also present for the launch was Mazel Ampareen Lyngdoh, Minister for Health and Family Welfare.
In his speech, Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma, emphasised that the launch is a transformative initiative to enhance the lives of farmers in the state and generate employment and also highlighted the need for collective action among various stakeholders, including cooperative societies, self-help groups, and the private sector, to improve agricultural productivity and economic value and said, “While we were discussing about different stakeholders, whether it is the women of our state and different issues related to health or the youth of the state with different issues from education to giving them the opportunity in sports, music and engaging them in different activities or whether it was about the farmers, we realised that there was a huge potential in all the different stakeholders and different groups that were there in our state and apart from the normal schemes that are there from the government of India and some schemes of the state government, there was no program, policy or a strategy to take them forward.”
He spoke on the initiatives of the government to streamline in a planned manner and connect various stakeholders in the farming sector to improve their functioning and outcomes. He stated,” It’s not that we have to do many big things to improve the overall productivity as well as the quality and add value to the product. So, this process of realizing that we need to collectivize the farmers and bring them together.”
He further informed that the various Integrated Village Cooperative Societies (IVCS) and producer groups have greatly benefitted in the last few years through the initiative of the government and also said that the state does not have the advantages of having large-scale production of commodity-based market products and instead need to go with a different kind of specialized products and look at the specific products ginger, turmeric, shiitake mushroom etc. He also expressed satisfaction with the progress made in improving the lives of farmers and cooperative societies but emphasised the need for continued efforts to unlock the potential in the agriculture and processing sectors.
The Chief Minister emphasised strongly on the importance of community-based social structures and the need to work with them to achieve success as Meghalaya has a community based social structure which in turn can create livelihood and transform lives and added that the partnership between cooperatives and private investors through the unique Community Public Private Partnership program will scale up their earnings and drive overall economic growth.
He further called on the government to continue supporting cooperative societies and the importance of upscaling opportunities for farmers. He urged community members to work with commitment and dedication to ensure the success of the processing plants that have been set up.
Proposed investments of ₹106 Crores is projected through CPPP in Meghalaya.
The Chief Minister also handed over cheques amounting to ₹16 Crores for the CPPP program and ₹2.55 Crores of working capital for various cooperatives. He also flagged off various Agri Response Vehicles under CM Elevate during the occasion.