15000 HA OF WASTELAND FOR PALM OIL CULTIVATION
Planning &coordination, land revenue and parliamentary affairs minister Neiba Kronu has suggested the Union agriculture & farmers’ welfare ministry to stop schemes not applicable/feasible for Nagaland.
He conveyed this during a video conference conducted by the Union agriculture & farmers’ welfare ministry along with 13 other States, which was attended by Union agriculture &farmers’welfare minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
Informing this to Nagaland Post, Kronu pointed out there were many schemes that were applicable for rest of the States in the country, but not for Nagaland. Hence, he said he had urged the ministry to discontinue such schemes, while focusing on those that were applicable.
He said he had shared the concept of Naga integrated farming, to which the ministry had taken note of.
Kronu attended the meeting in the absence of chief minister Neiphiu Rio and agriculture minister G Kaito Aye, both of whom are on a tour, and was accompanied by horticulture adviserMhathung Yanthan and agriculture production commissioner Y Kikheto Sema
15000 ha of wasteland for palm oil cultivation: Meanwhile, it was revealed during the meeting that the State government would target only 15,000 hectares of wasteland for palm oil cultivation. The decision was taken on the basis of actual availability of cultivable areas.
According to DIPR, Shivasa company has agreed to procure fresh fruits from farmers by September third week. The company has also been asked to set up oil extraction mill by August 2022.
National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm: The department is implementing the scheme under NFSM (OS& OP) since 2014-15. So far, it has covered an area of about 4623 ha along the foothill areas of Mokokchung, Wokha, Mon, Dimapur, Peren and Longleng. The Department has targeted area coverage of 1100 ha during 2021-2022
AIF: While thanking the Central government for introducing Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), Kronu pointed out that its implementation in the State was not on expected lines as the lending institutions were shying away from financing farmers and entrepreneurs due to the issue of collateral securities. Therefore, he requested the Centre to help the State in creating more agriculture infrastructure in through grant-in-aid.
PM-KISAN: Kronu said 2,00,082 farmers of the State had benefitted from Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) till August 31 this year and a total of Rs 265.52 crore transferred to their bank accounts.
KCC: Also, Rs 223.54 crore has been provided to 35,959 Kisan Credit Card (KCC) beneficiaries till June 30 by banks covering all districts.
Digital Agri: Though a digital database of land records was yet to be prepared due to the State’s peculiar landholding system, the agriculture and soil &water conservation departments, alongwith GIS Cell of the State, was working out to implement the same.
Export of Agri products: Kronu claimed that despite Covid-19 pandemic, the agriculture and allied departments organised several meetings, including a major consultative meet and buyer-seller meet on March 15, 2021in partnership with APEDA at Dimapur that was attended by experts from within and outside the State
Under the umbrella of Nagaland State Agriculture Marketing Board (NSAMB), he said market channels were being opened up for export of local products to metro cities under the brand name “Naturally Nagaland”. For the first time, he pointed out that Naga king chilli was exported to London on July 29 this year.
He mentioned that other niche products like bambooshoot, pineapple, kiwi, cardamom, ginger, sweet &juicy cucumber, tree tomato, etc, were also in the pipeline for export, though he acknowledged that the huge cost of transportation posed a huge challenge to the entire endeavour.
Kronu pointed out that Naga Coffee, which is regarded as one of the best, was the first agriculture product to have been exported for the past few years to the international market. Though coffee was currently planted in about 10,000 ha of land, he said the State government proposed to increase this to 30,000 ha. Besides, rubber was another important commercial crop to have been exported to other states, he added.