5-day farm fair opens today

Patna: A five-day national farming fair will begin here at the Veterinary college ground on Friday. CM Nitish Kumar is likely to inaugurate the event.“The fair has been organisedto provide farmers exposure to state-of-the-art machines. It is expected toprovide a market to agricultural equipment manufacturers,” saidBihar’s agriculture production commissioner Ashok Kumar Sinha here onThursday.As many as 16,000 farmers from across the state areexpected to attend it. It will witness the presence of 86 agriculture machineryproducing companies. These companies are reaching here from Punjab, Haryana,Gujarat, UP and other states, Sinha told reporters here.A“simulated farm” has been created at the fair site to demonstrate tofarmers how sophisticated agriculture equipments work. The fair is beingorganised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.“A ‘Kisan Pathshala (farmer school)’ will also run at the fair to teach modern farming techniques to farmers,” Sinha said.Through astall, the industry department will provide information to farmers about thesubsidy given by the state government on agriculture equipment. “Currentlythere is no agriculture equipment production unit in Bihar. Through the fair, wewill invite such companies to set up their units in the state,” Sinhasaid.