Meghalaya's Saiden e-village launched

Nongpoh (Meghalaya), Feb 3 (UNI) The Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) has recognised Saiden, a serene village in Meghalaya's Ri-Bhoi district, as an e-village.

The e-village status to Saiden village, about 50 km from Shillong, was formally granted by former Meghalaya Chief Minister D D Lapang yesterday.

The ICAR and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has equipped the village with two computers with an Internet connection, so that they can access information relating to different aspects of agriculture and its allied sectors.

The main objective of e-village was to facilitate the farmers for marketing agricultural products and to provide them with latest information on market price, improved technology and advisory service, ICAR Director Dr K M Bujarbaruah told UNI here today.

''We are in the 21st century and it's our prime duty to transmit knowledge to every farmer in the rural areas of the country,'' Dr Bujarbaruah said.

He said the ICAR have already selected five farmers from the village to gather information on agricultural products.

''The installation of equipments with new technology will surely benefit us,'' said K Lapang, a villager, adding that the farmers would no longer be misled by middlemen in marketing their agricultural products.

''We will ensure that every person from each household will be trained to gather information from the web now,'' Mr Lapang said.

He said with the launching of the e-village, the farmers of the area can access information through the Internet regarding different aspects of agriculture like types of crops, seeds, pesticides, fertilisers, disease protection, market prices and many others.

UNI