Mr. Satyabrata Mukherjee, Chairman of the Agro and Rural Development Committee of BCC&I along with senior members of the Committee, visited Santiniketan on February 4&5, 2016 on the project initiated by the Committee for adopting five villages in and around Santiniketan, in association with VISVA BHARATI UNIVERSITY.

The main objective of this project is “Economic Upliftment of Farmers” of those five villages by providing them technical support for farming vis-à-vis market linkage of their produce through Sufal Bangla, an initiative of Agriculture Marketing Department, Government of West Bengal. The Committee led by Mr. Mukherjee along with Dr. Sabujkoli Sen, Director of Studies, Visva Bharati University and District Officers of Agriculture Department, Government of West Bengal met villagers/farmers of those villages during the visit.

The following points were raised by farmers during the meetings :

a) Need for Soil Health Card/Soil Testing

b) Need help for Organic farming with Organic Fertilizers

c) Need help to improve irrigation facilities

d) Market Linkages

After meeting farmers of those villages, the Committee met Dr. Prof. Swapan Datta, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Visva Bharati University along with other members of the committee for a wrap up meeting. Dr. Datta assured us of all possible help for our endeavour. Dr Datta also pointed out that Drinking water and Sanitation is a big problem in the area. He also said that a lot of things are required to be done for bettering the lives of the farmers in the region. The following points/course of actions emerging out of this meeting were:

a) Mobile Soil Testing Van for those villages

b) Training session on Organic Fertilizer/Organic Farming

c) A questionnaire to be distributed to Farmers asking for details of farming/non farming activities and offseason activities.

After the meeting Mr. Satybrata Mukherjee thanked Visva Bharati and District Officers from the Agriculture Department, Government of West Bengal for their support and expressed his gratitude for the help extended by them.