‘Use nature as capital and make an economy out of farming’

Dimapur, Nov. 29: The second day of the business summit of the ongoing Nagaland International Trade expo (NITex) at Agri Expo site began with discussion on the topic “Building community farming and market linkages,” with emphasis to use nature as capital and make an economy out of farming.

Samir Bordoli, an agripreneur and organic farming consultant, has insisted relying on nature and not subsidies that might turn into huge sum of debts.

“Use nature as capital and make an economy out of farming,” he said. He encouraged the farmers to grow local food and build a local economy in order to enhance the income to the farmers.

Bordoli further spoke of the food conspiracy that is present in today’s world, where it is a tug of war between corporations and farmers in the food industry. Ella Mary, consultant of Youth Action for Rural Development, acknowledged all the women farmers although not present at the summit, for tirelessly toiling in farms in every corner in the state. ‘When we talk about farmers in our state, the first thought that comes to our mind is ‘a man’ as a farmer,’ she said as Naga women not being landowners are not perceived as farmers even though much of the farm work is done by women.

Mary also informed that with various developmental schemes, there is a growing trend of feminisation of agriculture. Speaking for women, Mary also cited the issues of women farmers in linking out their produce to markets.

Dr. Aotoshi, CEO of Window Media and former chairman CII Nagaland, stated that in Nagaland everything grows but the only issue was that of less volume. “We are engaged in subsistence cultivation and we don’t have anything to dispose off in terms of commercialising,” he said which is the reason why there is no market for the local produce on a large scale.

Dr. Elithung Lotha, HoD Horticulture Department, and Lipok Longkumer were also the panellists during the discussion.

The Business Summit ended with a session on ‘Building competent human resources’ where distinguished panellists from education and skill development sectors had brainstorming session.

Vice Chancellor of North East Christian University, Dr. Darlando Khathing spoke on the importance of tie-ups with industry to make training courses more effective and result oriented. He also suggested that institutes and universities should come together and complement each other.

Associate Dean (Planning & Dev), National Institute of Technology (NIT), Nagaland, Nzanthung Ngullie said that engineering students needed soft skills to be employable. He spoke about NIT’s plan to collaborate with Polytechnics in the state. He stressed on the need for the involvement of community based organisations in developing human resources.

Managing Director of Beardsell Ltd. Bharat Anumolu stated that Nagaland has the potential to be developed as the Goa of North East keeping in mind the hospitable nature of Nagas.

Coordinator of National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) Nishtha Vengurlekar said it is facilitating many training programs in Nagaland like homestay training by YouthNet, capacity building scheme under minister of DoNER offered by Nagaland Bamboo Development Agency and Nagaland Tool Room & Training Centre.

BAN executive member Oka Chisho said Nagaland is full of educated but unemployed people. Chisho has stressed on the need for employers to be more considerate towards their employees.

Summing up the discussion, moderator of the session and BAN advisor Zubeno Mozhui said the state need to identify the right skills suitable for the youth. Zubeno also stressed on Public Private Partnerships for developing infrastructure and competency of human resources.