Lucknow: In order to boost socio-economic conditions of the people of North-Esatern region in the country, National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow has set up a Centre of Excellence as a joint venture with Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA).
Set up at Bio Resource Development Centre (BRDC) Campus, Upper Shillong, the Centre would work towards improving the current status of sustainable agriculture, conservation and sustainable utilisation of biodiversity through technology development, refinement and transfer and human resource development.
This will further improve and uplift the present socio-economic condition of the people of the state.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was recently signed between NBRI and MBDA in this regard, a spokesman of NBRI told UNI here on Friday.
With the setting up of this Centre at Shillong under the Integrated Basin Development and Livelihood Production Programme (IBDLP), appropriate knowledge and technologies to the local entrepreneurs to tap resources such as medicinal and aromatic plants will be imparted besides teaching them the skills of converting the said resources into value added products, he added.
NBRI,the front ranking organisation in basic and applied research in the area of plant sciences under Council of Scientific and Industrial Reaserch (CSIR),is targeting to increase its reach towards NE region by making CSIR technologies available to local people, to improve their quality of lives,the spokesman said.
CSIR-NBRI has selected few technologies befitting the soil and climate in Meghalaya. One of these is Bio-inoculants to enhance the growth of crops like Ginger, Potato, Pea and Lentil.
The technology, will boost the yield by 20-25 per cent, leading to improvement of income for the people of the region, the spokesman informed.
Institute will focus on sustainable agriculture besides horticulture, floriculture, medical and aromatic plants by using bio-inoculates which has been a proven success in Uttar Pradesh.
The success had already got recognition by way of conferring a national award to both the organisations by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on September 26 last.
The institute will go for dehydrated floral craft which offers great scope for women empowerment. Orchids are quite abundant in Meghalaya region, he said.
These will be taken up to enhance the production of orchids and also to introduce floriculture as cash crops in the existing system of farmers thereby, increasing the profitability of agriculture.
The expertise of Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), another CSIR institution,will also be roped in to take up the work on medicinal plants namley Artemisia and Geranium for their medicinal and aromatic qualities leading to provide platform for medicine, perfumery and the food and drink industry in the North Eastern Sector, he added. (UNI)