VAIGA to aid post-flood revival of agriculture

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the state’s farm sector taking a severe hit in the mid-August floods, the Agriculture Department is planning to transform the upcoming VAIGA workshop in December into a platform for attracting ideas and recommendations for aiding a full-scale revival of the sector. 

The department has already kicked off discussions to ‘tweak’ the programme for the 2018 edition of VAIGA (‘value addition for income generation in agriculture’) to enable fruitful discussions and debate in this direction. 

‘’We have already conducted one meeting in this regard,’’ P K Jayasree, director, Agriculture Department, said. VAIGA 2018 is slated to be held in Thrissur in December. 

The department is planning to rope in experts from national agricultural and scientific institutions, including Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) for this year’s edition, the director said.

 According to the Agriculture Department, the short and long term damage to the sector, would come to approximately Rs 19,000 crore. A large number of crops including paddy, banana and pepper had reported huge destruction in the floods.