Agri officials trained on PLUP

KOHIMA, AUG 22: To present an overview over participatory land use planning to officials of agri and allied departments, an introductory training on the ‘Participatory Land Use Planning’ (PLUP) was jointly organised by the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and Department of Soil and Water Conservation, Government of Nagaland, on August 22 in the conference hall of De Oriental Grand, Kohima. The programme was attended by documentation specialist UNDP (International Consultant), Dr. Andras Darabant and Research Association, UNDP Delhi, Anushree Battacharjee as the resource persons. Giving an introduction of the training programme, Director & NDP (UNDP), Peter K Rengma said PLUP is a convergent project which requires the involvement of all stakeholders in order to create something which has not been done in the past, through proper planning and use of technology and scientific method. With an objective for sustainable land development in focus to the shifting cultivation in the context of Nagaland, Rengma said UNDP aims to improve the production level with the contribution of all concerned. Stating that PLUP evaluates and proposes best sustainable use of land resources in a village to improve the livelihoods of local population, Dr. Andras, speaking on the concept of PLUP in the technical session, said the training aims to enable participants to gain understanding of the objective, principles and the process of PLUP. He maintained that the learning outcome of the training programme should enable the officials to provide guidance and support to subordinate staff and to judge the allocation of resources necessary to implement PLUP. He also pointed out that participants should be familiar with the definition and objectives of Participatory Land Use Planning (PLUP), about its key principles and process and practice the analysis of different land use scenarios and facilitation of land use decisions. During the group work discussion and presentation, participants from various departments put forth suggestions on how to optimise use of land use knowledge, trans-disciplinary integration, and awareness on green revolution and tenure response with local technical knowledge. Dr. Andras also led the participants in discussing the principles of PLUP, process and practice during the technical session with Anushree as moderator.