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Officials from Horticulture Department, Government of Sikkim, during the consultative meeting with the State Rural Development Department on November 7 in Kohima.[/caption]
Kohima, November 8: Team of officials from Horticulture Department, Government of Sikkim, conducted a consultative meeting on plantation of large cardamom with the State Rural Development Department on November 7 at de Oriental Grand, Kohima.
The visiting team from Sikkim included Prem Chawang Bhutia, retained HDO, Government of Sikkim; TP Bhutia, Additional Director HCCDD; Rajan Thapa, Joint Director of HCCDD; and Laxmi Prasad, Progressive Nursery Grower, Sikkim.
Addressing the meeting, Secretary of Rural Development, Kelei Zeliang speculated that there could be different problems particularly in the management of pest and insects even as the department has started cardamom plantation in the current year. To avoid such problems, he said it is of utmost importance to have some knowledge on how to grow and maintain cardamom plants. Towards this end, Zeliang urged upon the horticulturists to teach the officers everything on cardamom plantation so that the department can take up the project successfully in the following years.
He also lauded the efforts of the Horticulture Department of Sikkim, which is perhaps the only State in the entire North east region, for taking up cardamom plantation on a large scale.
Pointing out that Nagaland has different grassroot organisations implementing all the schemes under Rural Development department, RD Director, Metsubo Jamir, was sceptical that teaching such technology to a department like Rural Development will not be easy. He, however, hoped that through this initiative the department will give efforts to propagate cardamom plantation besides the State’s Horticulture department.
He also felt that NE region will make an impact in the country’s production map by taking the initiative collectively on such schemes together.
Through power point presentation, the team educated the officers on how to identify the several prominent varieties of cardamom plants, soil suitability, irrigation management, different methods to curing and marketing strategies etc.
During the interactive session, the team from Sikkim answered queries and cleared doubts raised by the participating officers.
The meeting was attended by all Joint Directors of RD department, Project Directors, Deputy Directors and BDOs from all blocks.
The visiting team will also be visiting cardamom plantation in Phek and Peren district.
