Nagaland wins 7 Van Dhan Yojana national awards

Dimapur, Aug. 9 (EMN): Nagaland won seven national awards in the Van Dhan Vikas Yojana and Minimum Support Price (MSP) scheme for exemplary performance in different categories.

According to an update, the scheme is being implemented under Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (Trifed), Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) with department of Under Developed Areas (DUDA), Marketing and Consumers' Federation Ltd (MARCOFED), Nagaland Bee Keeping and Honey Mission (NBHM) as implementing agencies while department of Environment, Forest, Climate Change is the state nodal department.

Nagaland topped in three different categories including best survey, best training and the most number of Van Dhan Vikas Clusters (VDVKCs) established.

The state also received third positions in ‘best sales generated’ at INR 115, 86, 000 and in ‘Innovation and Creativity’ category.

The state was also awarded for innovative and creative product ideas for gooseberry wine and mushroom cultivation.

Under the VDVY scheme, Nagaland has 206 clusters comprising 2,805 SHGs and 61,800 beneficiaries throughout the state.

The awards were announced virtually by Union Minister for Tribal Affairs, Arjun Munda on the occasion Trifed’s 34th Foundation Day celebrated on August 6 at Trifed headquarters in New Delhi. 

The VDVK and MSP for Minor Forest Produce (MFP) scheme focuses on farmers’ entrepreneurship programmes through processing, packaging, branding and marketing of locally available products.

Chief secretary is the chairman of the state-level coordination and monitoring committee of the scheme.