Promoting horticulture and accreditation of nurseries

Kohima: A State Level Awareness Campaign of National Horticulture Board Schemes including accreditation of horticultural nurseries was organized by the Department of Horticulture, Government of Nagaland on March 26 at Hotel Legacy.

 

 

Neiba Kronu, Parliamentary Secretary for Horticulture was the chief guest and the department officials and about 76 farmers from all over the State attended it. In his address, Neiba Kronu acknowledged the National Horticulture Board (NHB) for their concern in promoting horticulture and accreditation of nurseries in the State for production of quality planting materials.

While sharing about his involvement in horticulture before entering into politics, he opined that unlike other States, Nagaland does not have big agricultural lands and hence horticulture sector is the only way we can change the face of the State’s economy and whose scope is widening day by day. He urged banks to be more supportive to the farmers in their horticultural ventures. He stressed on the importance of the post harvest activities especially marketing since production without marketing was futile and mulled the opening of a marketing hub in Guwahati and Delhi for Naga horticultural products for which he revealed that he was also in talks with the Railway Ministry on that line which was under consideration with the Ministry.

He stressed on the paramount importance of using quality-planting materials for enhancing quality production in the horticultural sector and urged the farmers to go for accreditation of nurseries through NHB. This could benefit them through supply of quality planting materials to not only the states but to other States also, for which the Government of India had agreed to place funds for the same and now, the ball was in the court of the Nagas to perform and show the desired results.

He highlighted that the revival of departmental nurseries was under progress since 2013-14 and will soon be accreditation with the NHB. While encouraging the farmers to take up one type of enterprise with full sincerity and dedication for better results, he highlighted that the Department has embraced the policy of compact area development and horticulture corridors for better marketability has been initiated along the National and State High ways.

He acknowledged the importance of promoting indigenous horticultural crops and revealed that some of the indigenous horticultural crops like Tree tomato, wild apple, Tree Bean (Yongchak), Local chive, Mechinga etc have already been tested for various quality parameters from CFTRI, Mysore. He urged that such kinds of tests should also be performed for the various horticultural crops produced in the State for better marketability. The Parliamentary Secretary also urged the farmers to take up low volume-high value horticultural crops for effective marketing and enhanced income.

In the Technical session, S.K. Singh, Deputy Director (NHB, Guwahati) spoke on the role of NHB in commercial Horticulture Development and accreditation of Horticulture Nurseries, while the status of horticulture nurseries in Nagaland and importance of quality planting materials were highlighted by Pawan Kumar, Joint Director of Horticulture. Dr. Sarat Saikia, Chief Scientist, Horticultural Research Station, A.A.U., Kahikuchi spoke on the basic principles of fruit nursery raising and its management. Bendang Aier, AGM NABARD highlighted on the financial support available from NABARD for promotion of horticulture in Nagaland and David Kire, Chief Manager, Lead Bank (SBI) enumerated on the financial support by the banking sector for promotion of Horticulture in Nagaland.

The technical session was followed by an interactive session with the farmers and officials, where various issues on the technical aspects of horticulture production and accreditation of nurseries were discussed at length.

Watienla Jamir, Director & Mission Director (HMNEH), chaired the programme while Pawan Kumar, Jt. Director of Horticulture delivered the welcome address. S.K. Singh, Deputy Director, National Horticulture Board, Guwahati presented the highlights of the Programme , while the vote of thanks was pronounced by Dr. R.E. Lotha, Deputy Director of Horticulture.