Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, March 17 (EMN): A three-day conference on spice and aromatic crops named the “symposium of spices and aromatic crops (SYMSAC) concluded at the School of Agricultural Sciences and Rural Development (SASRD) in Medziphema in Dimapur district on March 17.
According to a brief analysis by Prof. M Aleminla Ao, the in charge, pro vice chancellor (SASRD), she pointed out that there was no seed certification centres in Nagaland even though all seeds grow well and abundantly in the State. And due to this many problems are faced. Apart from the nonexistent certification centres, Ao also added that even though a marketing centre for production is present, the difficulty in showing farmers the market linkage was difficult.
The valedictory programme included the report of the three day programme which was presented by Prof. Akali Sema (SASRD) and Dr. D Prasath (ICAR-IISR). The report recommended promotions of Participatory Guarantee System (PGS – India) especially for organic certification by Farmers Group for domestic market, novel Delivery of beneficial microbes for improving the soil health to be promoted. This was in relation to technology led organic production of spices and safe foods.
A technical session on post harvest management, value addition and marketing of spices was also conducted. It was recommended that Farmer producer organizations (FPO) and Farmer producer Companies (FPC) made in northeast states should harness the advantage of organic and geographical Identification (GI) brand authorization throughThe Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) for marketing the produces for maximizing profitability. More startup’s need to be promoted for adopting post harvest management and value addition potentials in spices, it was mentioned. Another point brought up was the cash crops from NE states (including spices) should be recommended for maximum support price. Lastly it was noted that warehousing facilities need to be strengthened/created to store dried spice produces in NE region to ensure price advantage & profitability.
The chief guest for the programme was Dr. AK Yadav, Advisor (NAB) (APEDA). He said that there are a lot of schemes that are announced but all programmed by different departments and agencies. For this he added that more seminars should be conducted to disseminate their schemes for commercial organic farming. In regard to transportation and logistics issues, Yadav suggested the organisation of stake holders and scheme holders to tackle it.
