NAMSAI, September 18: Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein on Sunday inaugurated the Common Facility Centre (CFC) of Turmeric, Aloevera, Moringa and Mushroom SFURTI (Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries) cluster Namsai.
DCM was accompanied by MLA Namsai Chau Zingnu Namchoom, MLA Lekang JummumEte Deori, ZPC, Namsai Nang Urmila Mancheykhun, DC Namsai, C.R Khampa and Dir. Riwatch, Vijay Swami.
Mein expressed his elation on one of its kind processing unit being set up in the district. Bringing up the subject of Ease of Doing business (EoDB), Mein urged the district heads to facilitate and hand hold the general public in availing maximum services being rendered by the government.
He said that the State has highest land bank in the North East and called upon SHGs for self employment.
Mein said Namsai has immense potential and can be termed as the spice area more than a fruit belt and called on concerned department for strengthening efforts to add Namsai in the Spice map of India.
He also lauded the effort of former field officer of Spice Board Namsai for spearheading activities to help farmers in increasing growth of spice in the district.
“Namsai should emerge as the highest contributor to the GDP,” said Mein and added that through concerted team effort we can aim to achieve it.
He stated that a night market at Namsai is in the pipeline where tourist can buy local handicrafts and taste the Tai Khamti cuisine in one place.
He also emphasised on the need to modernise our traditional ways of farming and stressed on how modernisation and mechanisation will reduce the input cost and help farmers fetch premium prices for their produce, for this, “a pilot project for farm mechanisation should be adopted by department concerned and depending on the success of such projects, the process can be replicated”, he said.
He asserted the need of reviving offices that are lying dormant and urged all to do their part in providing smooth and effective service delivery to the deprived.
He sought synergy from all the departments so that the success stories of this unit will pave way for more such processing units in the district and state as a whole.
MLA Namsai Namchoom, congratulated the team for achieving their dream of setting up the processing unit.
He stated, “Collective efforts of all the stakeholders have led to this day and the conjoined effort to is to be continued for sustaining the unit”.
He apprised about the initiative involving cooperative societies that the Government is planning to undertake to revamp agri and allied sector and advised the officers to make themselves aware of all such schemes and programmes.
He concluded by saying that the success of this processing unit will be an eye opener for others to replicate.
He then took the opportunity to talk about the rising Tuberculosis cases in the district and briefed about the vision of TB Mukht Bharat.
He urged the general public and womenfolk in general to lead and pledge in creating sanitation, nutrition and drug awareness among the village population during their monthly PLC, CLF, meetings.
MLA, Lekang Ete also expressed her elation and said that marketing was a huge constraint for the farmers of the district which has now been met with solace after the establishment of the processing unit.
She further emphasised the need of soil testing for maximising productivity and income.
She solicited NOSAAP to be a guiding force for all the farmers in the district and stressed the importance of convergence of various departments to successfully execute welfare schemes of the government.
DC, Namsai C.R Khampa in his address congratulated the team on successfully setting up the unit. Encouraging agripreneurship, he said, “beyond Government jobs there is entrepreneurship in the field of agri and allied sector”.
He advised the public to tap all the readily available resources in the district and to fully utilise it for maximising output for a better livelihood.
He further advised them to be in the forefront and to take maximum assistance and services out of all the government departments while affirming full cooperation from District Administration.
He advised the farmers to mandatorily get their farm soils tested by approaching the departments concerned and adopt scientific and climate conducive crops for cultivation. Highlighting that the unit is in its nascent stage and requires support from all end, he requested the technical departments to hand hold and guide NOSAPP for successfully sustaining the unit and to provide forward- backward linkage wherever needed.
Executive Director RIWATCH Swami, also spoke on the occasion. He reiterated the importance of food processing and increased value of produce. He also shed light on nano technology.
CEO, NOSAPP Chau Athina Chauhai gave a detailed overview of the unit and shared the process, experiences and stakeholders involved behind the brainchild. He apprised that the unit will provide cost effective facilities such as washing, drying, crushing of turmeric which otherwise is a costly affair for small and marginal farmers. He also thanked the department of agriculture and horticulture for providing them with the technical know-how knowledge. The unit will be of immense service for the many farmers who are looking forward to market processed produce and informed that it is open for all the farmers, SHGs, Entrepreneurs for use, subject to submission of processing fee.
Ritupon Deori, progressive farmer and promoter of NOSAAP shared his testimonials and shared some of the future objectives laid down by the organisation.
Namsai district has reinforced its venture in doubling farmers income through the inauguration of a Common Facility Centre of Turmeric, Aloevera, Moringa and Mushroom SFURTI cluster Namsai.
Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries is an initiative by the Ministry of MSME to promote Cluster development.
PPDC, Agra is the the Nodal Agency while Nisarg Agripreneurship foundation is the technical agency and the scheme is executed by NOSAAP, Producer Co. Ltd at Namsai.
HoDs, Chairperson, CEO, BOD NOSAPP, progressive farmers from Namsai, Lohit, Lower Dibang Valley and SHG members also attended.
The trial run for the spice section of the unit started from the month of June by the TA (NOSAAP). For the unit to function all-round the year, NOSAAP had tied up with a buyer from Hyderabad and procured around 300 MT of turmeric. Since the month of April, multiple stages of processing have started such as washing, boiling, slicing, drying and powdering of turmeric.
