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M Ben Yanthan speaks during the inaugural function of the ‘organic bazaar,’ on October 24 at the Urban Haat in Dimapur.[/caption]
Our Reporter
Dimapur, Oct. 24 (EMN): As part of the mission for organic value chain development for the Northeast region (NER) set up by the government of India, an ‘organic’ bazaar was inaugurated on October 24 at the Urban Haat in Dimapur.
Addressing the event, the director of the Agriculture department, M Ben Yanthan, expressed happiness at being part of people who have a vision for the future of Nagaland.
As the NER is considered an organic hub, Yanthan said that the central government was giving much focus on the region with regard to promotion of organic farming.
Yanthan called the organic value chain development a great step taken by the central government to develop value for specific crops in the region.
“The states like Sikkim is already an organic state with 75000 hectares of land under organic cultivation while Meghalaya aims to covert 2,00,000 hectare into organic farmland by 2020, Nagaland with all its potential need to in pace with this scenario,” Yanthan said.
Saying that Nagaland has the potential to become one of the most important ‘organic states’ in the country and make it a leading state in organic agriculture, Yanthan wondered why the state was still not at the forefront among the states of the region or the country.
The official informed that Nagaland has about 17,000 hectares involving more than 17,000 farmers covering almost all districts of the state, and engaging resource institutes like Shibha Welfare and the Eleutheros Christian Society.
The focus crops are the Naga pepper, ginger, turmeric, large cardamom, kidney beans, glutinous rice, pineapple, and passion fruit among others.
“While we also are aware the great works of the different departments in the state for organic farming, the same yardsticks are not visible in its impact at grass root level. I think we need to ponder on this and try to figure out the missing links,” Yanthan said.
The agriculture officer expressed belief that the youths are the assets of any state or society, and that the future depends on these youths.
“Our future is organic and sustainable farming and the entrepreneurship and the organic movement by the youth seems to be the order of the day and therefore we should equipped our youth who are organic enthusiast by encouraging them, inspiring them, motivating them to play their role in taking forward our state to greater heights in the organic sector,” Yanthan said.
The director said that the organic market setup will facilitate farmers and entrepreneurs to sell organic produce and products and achieve doubling farmers’ income by 2022.