A team from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) visited the State to oversee the progress of Nagaland Forest Management Project (NFMP) for two days from June 1.
Comprising First Secretary (Food & Agriculture) Economic Section, Embassy of Japan in India, Ikko Watanabe, JICA India chief development specialist Vineet S Sarin and JICA India representative Hidenobu Fujiwara, the team visited the project management unit (PMU) at the forest office complex, Kohima and held discussions with NFMP officials.
During the meeting, a power point presentation was made by PMU officials on the progress of activities covering all aspects of the project, both physical and financial, along with a short audio visual of the project.
Noting that the project had made good progress so far, the visiting team commented that they were impressed with the progress made, especially in GIS and MIS after they visited GIS & MIS cell of NFMP.
Self-help groups (SHGs) from five divisional management units (DMUs), viz., Zunheboto, Phek, Peren, Dimapur and Kohima, had set up display stalls of the activities they undertook at the forest office complex for the visiting team to showcase the type of livelihood activities undertaken under the project. Ikko Watanabe inaugurated the SHG display stalls.
On June 2, the JICA team visited DMU Kohima and DMU Wokha and were hosted by respective DMU heads Rajkumar Mand SWSuman IFS.
During the field visit,the team was accompanied by chief project director(CPD) Dharmendra Prakash, team leader of project management consultant (PMC) Pranab.
At Terogvunyu village, Kohima, the team laid the foundation stone for village gate construction as an entry point activity under NFMP. The officials also planted cherry saplings near the village gate proposed site.
During a brief interaction with the village community, the officials said NFMP was a community project and encouraged the village community to work together for the benefit of the future.
The team also visited Longsachung village, Wokha and inspected the nursery site, jhum agro forestry (JAF) model and water harvesting structures (WHS), besides holding interactions with at least 10 Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs) from the Batch I, II & III villages as well as members of SHGs, who displayed products of their income generating activities (IGA).
It may be mentioned here that NFMP provided revolving funds to SHGs to carry out their IGAs.The team also inspected the accounts and other registers maintained by the JFMC. This was stated in a press release by NFMP deputy project director Lhinghoikim Touthang.
Japan International Cooperation Agency team visits State to review NFMP
