Tripura Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Ratan Lal Nath raised a series of demands for strengthening the State’s agriculture and horticulture sectors and improving farmers’ welfare at the National Agriculture Conference–Rabi Campaign 2026 in New Delhi.
Addressing the second day of the conference, Nath urged the Centre to include “local natural calamities” such as flooding in the guidelines of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), as paddy-growing areas in Tripura frequently suffer crop losses due to inundation during heavy rains.
The Minister also sought 45,000 additional soil health cards for Tripura and higher allocations under the Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) and Per Drop More Crop (PDMC) schemes to strengthen farm mechanisation and irrigation.
He said 25,000 hectares of hybrid paddy, 9,500 hectares of Rabi pulses and 9,700 hectares of Rabi oilseeds were cultivated during the previous Rabi season. During the current Kharif season, 37,500 hectares have been covered under the Chief Minister’s Integrated Crop Management Programme.
Nath said Tripura has 16,400 hectares under natural farming involving around 38,000 farmers. He highlighted the need for greater support to Bio Input Resource Centres for packaging, branding and marketing and proposed a Natural Seed Grower Consortium. He also sought expansion of the MOVCD-NER scheme to all northeastern states, noting Tripura’s organic produce is exported to Germany, Dubai and Bangladesh.
The Minister requested an increase in the annual action-plan allocation for the Area Expansion Programme under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) from 20% to 35%.
He said Tripura has strong potential for cultivating exotic fruits such as avocado and rambutan but faces shortages of quality planting material. Nath urged greater Central research support and proposed increasing MIDH assistance from 50% to 75% for Centre of Excellence projects and post-harvest management to attract private investment.
The conference was attended by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Ministers of State Ram Nath Thakur and Bhagirath Choudhary, Agriculture Ministers of various states and senior officials.
