The Tripura government haslaunched an 'Agro-Entrepreneur Facilitation Desk' to help the entrepreneurs of the state to get subsidies and incentives from Central government funding agencies.A proposal for setting up the facilitation desk was approved by the council of ministers in its recently held meeting, senior minister and Cabinet spokesperson, Ratan Lal Nath told reporters on Friday."Our state is predominantly agrarian in nature. We are trying to boost agriculture and other primary sector activities. We have noticed that entrepreneurs, who want to set up agro-based industries here, dont know about the subsidies and incentives provided by state and central governments, National Horticulture Board or NABARD."The new desk would help them about availing the facilities", Nath said.The desk would be set up at the Directorate of Horticulture and Soil Conservation and would incur an annual expenditure of Rs 24 lakh on salaries of MBA and agricultural science graduates, who would be recruited and other official expenditure.The funds would be sourced from Technical Support Group Funds of the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture.The government plans include a target of encouraging 2,000 youths in joining agro-based business in the next one year.Initiatives are being given to facilitate 400 people start business in the sector right away.Ten among them would be able to set up new industrial units and a target of organizing four buyer-sellers meet in next one year is afoot, the minister said.Tripura produces huge quantities of tropical fruit like jackfruit, lemon, pineapples and vegetables like white radish, pumpkin, and gourd.Doubling agricultural income was part of BJPs Vision Document in the 2018 assembly elections.Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb had said last month that primary sector activities like agriculture, horticulture, dairy industries would help in reviving the states economy which suffered losses due to the lockdown.
