By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Meghalaya’s horticulture story has got a major fillip as the state government was awarded an additional Rs30 crore by the 13th Finance Commission for its performance in promoting horticulture in the state.
Director, Horticulture Dr CO Rangad said that this is basically about setting up of planting material hubs. “We have identified that such planting materials will be as per required quality that will help the final output of products. At the moment we are importing planting materials from other states and even importing them at a big expense of the state exchequer. It will ensure high quality as our experience from the 11th Plan says that the selected crops had good success stories,” said Dr Rangad.
Informing that the planting materials will be set up by 2 ½ years time, Dr Rangad observed that once these hubs are ready citrus in general, lime and other horticulture seedlings will be benefitted. “We have a wide diversity of oranges found here in the state and one of them is the Khasi mandarin and the farmers of the state will get easy access once the planting material is ready,” he said.
But there are many technical aspects to these hubs. “The hubs will come up in collaboration with National Research Centre for Status NRRC), Nagpur. There are many technical sides such as we have to see the poly house netting, soil sterilizer, hardening of soil etc. as these are going to be fully hi-tech hubs,” said Dr Rangad adding NRRC is assisting the horticulture department. “This will also benefit the horticulture department since Khasi oranges (Khasi Mandarin) are endangered by the cheap available saplings from other states,” observed the Director.
Two such planting materials are coming in East Khasi Hills and East Garo Hills region for the benefit of the entire state.