Tie-up with Slovakia Academy of Sciences
SHILLONG: Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma ended his Slovakia visit which was undertaken to promote cooperation and projects in various field of water management, agriculture, skills upgradation and enhancement of employment generation in allied industries, horticulture, forestry and apiculture.
The meeting resulted in arriving at a decision to tie up with the Slovak Academy of Sciences to utilize their service and similar kind of research for scientific documentation on medicinal proportion of the honey in Meghalaya and trained the farmers for the production of both medical grade and normal grade honey of high quality and standard conforming to food safety norms to be able to tap the niche market.
The Academy shared the figures in relation to the quantum of honey being exported by various countries. The Academy informed that though New Zealand Manuka Honey exported 10 million kgs per year and in terms of value it is @ US $ 110 / kg where as though the production of China Honey is 110 million kgs per year but in terms of value it is only @ US $ 2 / kg.
The official delegation led by the Chief Minister visited the Slovak Academy of Sciences and met Dr Juraj Majtan, Head of the Institute and his team.
During the meeting, the Academy presented their extensive research on apiculture and their application for medicinal use including clinical trials where it was shown to have proven efficacies on treating of diseases.
The presentation also included the huge demand on medical grade honey and the higher return that can be accrued to the farmers which is usually ten times the price of normal honey.
The meeting was then followed by a field visit to one of the honey processing unit owned by Dusan Dedinsky whose family had been associated with honey production for the last 120 years.
During an interaction the entrepreneur narrated measures taken over ten years to bring up honey to the highest level. He then explained and show case the flowchart of the honey processing unit and its diverse products produced from honey and has expressed his willingness to assist Meghalaya in the field of apiculture.
The Rector of the University welcomed the suggestion of the Chief Minister to work jointly in identifying the areas of water resource management Agriculture and Horticulture in the field related to food safety norms for marketing and to work on the existing indigenous varieties of crops which can withstand the affect of climate change.
Further, during his stay the Chief Minister met the National Forest Centre, Zvolen, Slovakia Shri Jaroslav Jankovic, Head of the Centre who presented the activities in information and communication technologies and modern webgis solutions for which they had earned the award for using Forestry GIS from ESRI user conference in San Diego, California during July 2012 and during the meeting their willingness to support Meghalaya in advanced information technologies using Forestry GIS to various sectors.
The Chief Minister also met a number of business delegates of Bratislava, Slovakia who has expressed their interest to explore the possibility of joint ventures with the State of Meghalaya in various sectors.
The meeting culminated in working out the modalities for partnership between the University and the Govt. of Meghalaya to look upon the expertise and knowledge of University in the relevant fields including sponsoring and training of young officers from agriculture, horticulture and water resources departments.