Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Thursday launched India's biggest piggery project in Meghalaya at National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) Headquarters in New Delhi.

Union Minister of State (MoS)  for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Kailash Choudhury and Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong were also present during the launch.

Launching the programme Chief Minister thanked the Centre and NCDC for partnering with Meghalaya to fructify the ‘Meghalaya State Piggery Mission’.

"The Piggery Mission would make the state self-sufficient in pork production and would also go a long way in making Meghalaya Atmanirbhar," Sangma said.

With funding of Rs 200 Crore, the mission will have a transformative effect benefitting over 20,000 enterprises in Meghalaya.

This is also a testimony to the long-standing association between the NCDC and the Government of Meghalaya, wherein the State has partnered on the similar-sized Milk Mission last year.

CM Sangma informed that to leverage all the progress that the state has made in the primary sector and the cooperatives sector, the Meghalaya State Piggery Mission has been launched with a focus on augmenting farmer income and attaining self-sufficiency in food and nutrition security.

“The Meghalaya State Piggery Mission, supported by the NCDC, will enable our State to achieve self-sufficiency in pork production, reduce our out-of-state import burden by nearly Rs 150 Crores annually and improve the incomes of over 25,000 households, totalling to an annual increment of Rs 70 Crores across the state," the Chief Minister added.

He also informed that through “Piggery Mission” farmers in the State will be provided with an interest-free loan.

"The interest for the loan will be paid by the State Government. This is being done to encourage farmers to avail the loan," he said.

He also informed that through convergence with MGNREGA, the programme will be implemented in the State, wherein people in the villages will benefit the most.

Informing that this ambitious programme will directly benefit the farmers, CM Sangma also said that the Meghalaya government has a grand vision to catapult Meghalaya into the top ten Indian States in terms of Per Capita Income by 2030.

"Keeping this objective in mind, the Government has launched Restart Meghalaya Mission, that comprises a series of interventions to support farmers, entrepreneurs, by enabling them to build growth-promoting basic infrastructure and services," he added.

He also talked about Meghalaya’s diverse agro climate zones that enable the State to grow a range of high-value agriculture produces such as lakadong turmeric, honey, oranges, strawberries, mushrooms, etc.

"The Government of Meghalaya has already undertaken various initiatives to improve production, productivity and marketing of our agriculture produce," he said.

"The Lakadong Mission, the Jackfruit mission, the Mushroom Mission, the Milk Mission and the Aquaculture Mission are all such initiatives that are aimed at systematic increase of production and value augmentation," he added.