Regional Agricultural Plan
SHILLONG: A meeting was held in NEC Secretariat under the Chairmanship of MP Bezbaruah, member, NEC on identifying priorities for NEC for formulation of Regional Agricultural Plan for NER.
During the meeting, Member in NEC expressed the need to focus attention of the NEC and the State Governments in conjunction with the assistance available from the Central Government to tackle the various issues and problems faced by the NER in the agriculture and allied activities.
Emphasis was laid on achieving self sufficiency in some selected food deficit items namely eggs, fish, meat, milk and fruits and the importance of taking up agricultural and allied activities through cluster approach by identifying special development zones wherein other physical infrastructure like agriculture roads, markets, cold chain, water and power supply for processing units could be one of the way forward to achieve the goal for self sufficiency in the selected items.
In such areas plantation crops like rubber, coffee, tea, spices, cashew nut etc. could be promoted. Apart from these, priority areas identified for regional planning included promotion for seed multiplication, breeding units for livestock, hatcheries for birds and fish, cold storage chains, marketing infrastructure, watershed development, etc.
The need for NERAMAC which is an apex marketing corporation for NER under DoNER to play an important role in the marketing of agriculture produces was strongly stressed by the Secretary, NEC.
It was felt the NER has an unparalleled advantage of having varied climate zones which enables it to become a region that can produce agriculture produces in various crops throughout the year.
The need to pay attention to diseases of livestock and birds and the availability of vaccines especially for classical swine flu was mentioned by some experts in animal husbandry.
Adviser from Planning Commission agreed to the need for coordinated efforts to build convergence as agriculture is a subject which has to be tackled in all fronts.
The Commissioner mentioned about the mission mode scheme launched recently by the Union Government which would help the NE States to increase their production of animal products.
Ameising Luikham, Secretary, NEC took review of all the ongoing NEC funded schemes/projects under Agriculture and Allied sector in the North Eastern States. Secretary, NEC emphasized for timely completion of the projects by the States.