Among all of the North Eastern States there is no doubt that Nagaland is at this time raking in the moolah and the inauguration of the first of its kind Central Institute of Horticulture (CIH) at Medziphema has propelled Nagaland into the center stage of what is going to be a second green revolution for the country. Union Minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar clearly put his money on the hotspot i.e. the growing prospect of horticulture in the region. With the CIH at Medziphema expected to fill the gap in providing the technological and institutional support required for the promotion of Horticulture and more so with the Look East Policy of the Central Government readying to take-off, the only gap that now needs to be plugged in is in the provision of peace and security for the region more importantly Nagaland.
Unless a cordial atmosphere prevails in which investors across the board—domestic, national and international—are assured with a sense of security, the prospects for economic development will remain straddled both now and in the future. And here to remind the Chief Minister of Nagaland, the initiative at development (for peace) will remain incomplete unless the State government also comes up with a clear cut peace policy short of which it is highly unlikely that the dynamic initiative on the development front undertaken by the DAN government will remain non-sustainable.
On its part, the Central Government will have to take up as its next initiative the development of rail and road transport to boost economic growth in the region. The Centre will have to follow-up on the all important aspect of improving the overall infrastructure facilities if it is serious enough to tap the farm potential of the region. For this a comprehensive policy rather than a piece meal one, has to be targeted for the region as a whole.
For the farming community in the region Pawar has rightly pointed out that the local farmers would need to adopt modern agricultural practices, promote agri-marketing on a much wider scale, bring in private capital, and step up crop diversification. The State Government would have hopefully taken note of this message from Union Agriculture Minister and the next step on its part should be to take several pro-active policy measures to address what would essentially be to fulfill the requirement of a market driven economy. The Agri and Allied Sectors in Nagaland offer good inputs for development of a host of industries but unless the agricultural resources are fully tapped to its optimum potential the opportunity now presenting itself to become part of the second green revolution may well evaporate.
While it was somewhat disappointing that Pawar failed to declare the Agri-Expo site at Dimapur as a permanent exhibit, the announcement that the Centre is seriously considering this proposal should now be pursued as a priority issue. Recognizing the site as an Agri trading hub will serve the long term economic purpose for the region and the country. The level of interest for this vision to materialize has to be sustained over time and not merely wallow.
