Ranchi, Aug 26 : Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das said on Sunday that a 26-member farmers' team left for Israel on a four-day trip to study farming techniques.

" You (farmers) are going to Israel on the pious day of Raksha Bandhan with an aim to increase farmers' income. Learn Israel's technique of farming and adopt it in our state and share the experience with others," Das said while seeing off the team.

"Israel is smaller than Jharkhand area wise but the country's per capita income is more than India due to farming. We should always learn from a place where something better is happening. Today Jharkhand is a deficit state as far as foodgrain production is concerned. But those days are not far when Jharkhand will become self dependent and export foodgrains to other states."

The farmers will learn dairy farming, production of vegetables and fruits, drip irrigation and other things. The team is being led by Agriculture Secretary Pooja Singhal.



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Mumbai (PTI): The Maharashtra government has set up a State Vaccination Task Force to strengthen the regular immunisation programme and review the progress of related campaigns, a health department official said on Monday.

The State Vaccination Task Force will comprise at least 29 members and will be headed by the administrative head of the health department, he informed.

The government has also constituted separate district-level and municipal vaccination task forces to improve implementation and address challenges at the grassroots level, he said.

Municipal task forces, chaired by respective civic commissioners, have been constituted in view of the vast urban population in Maharashtra and the role of civic bodies in implementing different health programmes.

The district-level task forces will function under the chairmanship of collectors.

"Complete immunisation of children at the appropriate age is an extremely simple, cost-effective and highly effective measure to reduce child mortality and the prevalence of diseases among kids. Immunisation is a powerful tool for reducing illness in children," maintained the official.

To ensure full vaccination of all children, the state government implements various campaigns from time to time as per the central government guidelines, he pointed out.

"Active participation and cooperation of other relevant government departments are essential (in making these campaigns successful)," according to the official.

The state-level body will review the regular immunisation programme, associated campaigns and vaccine-preventable diseases in detail. It will also conduct focused assessments of high-risk districts and municipal corporations, including vacancies at district, municipal and sub-district levels, availability of cold chain equipment, resource gaps and training requirements, he noted.

The state task force will review allocation and utilisation of funds for immunisation and ensure timely action by officers concerned based on reports from district and municipal task forces and state-level monitoring mechanisms, the official said.

It will also ensure active coordination and participation of other government departments in immunisation drives, while district and municipal task forces will carry out similar functions at their respective levels, the official added.