KOCHI, Apr 20:

           

Carrying forward his mission to promote agriculture potentials of the State to lure the big agro-based industrialist to Arunachal, Deputy Chief Minister, Chowna Mein visited the head office of Spice Board of India and Synthite, world leading manufacturer of value added spices at Kochi today.

            

During his interaction with the Directors, Siddaramappa S (Director Finance), Dr AB Remashree, (Director R & D) and officials of Spice Board of India, Mein urged the Spice Board to expedite setting up of two Auction Centres for Spices at Namsai and Kimin. He lamented that despite land were made available (donated) and allocation of fund of Rs 1 Crore each for the setting up of auction centres in the last financial year, the Department of Horticulture and the Spice Board of India could not make any progress in this regard. He informed that the fund has been kept in this year’s budget too and called upon the officials of the Spice Board to coordinate with the State Horticulture Department and set up the Auction Centres at the earliest. He assured to provide all possible support from the State Government to make these Auction Centres functional.

            

He said, “There is huge scope for cultivation of spice crops in Arunachal Pradesh and the State is one of the potential producers of large cardamom besides ginger, turmeric, pepper and chillies”. He informed that even the wild cinnamons grown in the State are found to be more pungent than the cultivated one in the plain areas.

 

However, he said, “These potentials cannot be converted into revenue generating resources unless we activate and accelerate ourselves” and called upon the officers of Horticulture Department to pull up their socks and work little harder for the economic upliftment of the farmers. 

            

He further said that to ensure that the spice culture is promoted in larger way in Arunachal Pradesh and all the welfare measures and schemes must percolate down to the farmers.

Mein was happy to learn that the Spices Farmer Producer Companies (SFPC) at Namsai for Ginger has been successfully registered on April 17 last, which is the first registered SFPC in the State of Arunachal Pradesh and thanked the Spice Board of India for their initiative. He was also informed that the registration of second SFPC for Large Cardamom at Ziro is under process.  

           

 However, the Spice Board of India sought the support of the State Govt for persuasion of the Project for establishment of SFPCs in the North East Region, the proposal of which had been submitted to the NEC (Department of NER) for necessary funding, to which he assured to look into.

            The officials also made a power point presentation to the Deputy Chief Minister highlighting their activities in Arunachal and North East region.

It was also informed that Arunachal Pradesh has the second highest numbers of field offices (9 offices in 9 districts) after Kerala in the country. DCM also visited the laboratories of the Spice Board of India.

 

             While interacting with Aju Jacob, Chief Executive Officer of the Synthite and his team, Mein invited the manufacturer for starting contract farming in Arunachal Pradesh too as they are doing at Kerala and Sikkim for Organic turmeric. He said that by way of contract farming, the company can help the farmers of the State by providing quality sapling, technical know-how and the assurance of buying back which in turn will help to improve their economy. He also informed them about the agriculture potentials and scope of spice crops in the State which can become a major supplier of raw materials for the manufacturer.

 Mein also invited the Officials of Spice Board and CEO of the Synthite in the Agriculture Conclave at Itanagar that will be held on May 18 to 19 next and to put forward their suggestions and help in drawing a road map for resurgence of Agriculture in Arunachal Pradesh.

            He also visited the spice processing, oil and CO2 extraction unit

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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