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T Imkonglemba Ao addresses farmers during the seminar on medicinal and aromatic plants, at the directorate of Land Resource, on March 5.[/caption]
Dimapur, March 5 (EMN): A seminar on medicinal and aromatic plants was conducted at the directorate of Land Resource Development, in Kohima on March 5 in Kohima.
The programme was organized by the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) Development Institute at Dimapur, in association with MSME-Technology Center at Imphal, and the Nagaland Bio Resource Mission.
Thirty farmers from Kohima and Phek attended the programme, updates from the government bulletin DIPR on Tuesday.
At the inaugural programme the “special invitee,” T Imkonglemba Ao, principal secretary and agriculture production commissioner was stated to have told the gathering that the MSME and the bio resource establishment were collaborating for the work.
The MSME was set up in all the states ‘but unfortunately nothing much could be made productive because of people’s mentality to look for the bigger picture ignoring the smaller one,’ the DIPR quoted him as having said during the event.
Nonetheless, the MSME brings ‘70 % of the industrial annual production,’ the officer said. Grass root level units in any sector should be given ‘much importance for starting any large scale industries,’ he said.
“Power is a factor which we need to consider to venture into any sector of industries. Marketing outlets as well as transportation cost should be calculated and planned before setting up any new venture,” Ao said.
‘Perishable items become a loss in transportation’ he said, and urged the MSME groups to ‘venture out by providing production machine introducing portable machines in regions such as the Northeast region.
‘Our venture in this sector is so near yet so far. Nagaland is richly blessed with lots of areas to cultivate organic products and have discovered more than 700 items labeled to be medicinal crops and plants yet we tend to ignore this,’ the DIPR stated in the updates.
Dr. Yoiren Tomba Singh of the MSME- TC at Imphal also spoke during the event. He said that ‘our environment and landscape is a gold mine on medicinal and aromatic plants.’
It is high time to ‘spread awareness and focus exploring to its maximum. Since we have good knowledge in traditional medicines we should realize that this sector can be turned to a vast commercial sector and generate income into a larger scale,’ the official said.
“A hindrance to the farmers is that they ignore to explore about the market outlet which is a vital step for any entrepreneur to chalk out and plan his venture.”
According to the MSME official, micro, small and medium enterprises aim to turn ‘traditional farmers into entrepreneurs.’
The MSME can take the main role in developing and enabling the farming community by giving technical support. They can also offer training in ‘methods about how and which crop to be cultivated accordingly with the regions suitable for that particular plant.’
Later, preview about the program was given by assistant director of MSME Dimapur, M Sabarigiri, the DIPR stated.
