SHILLONG: A Brainstorming Session for promoting horticulture in the North East was organized at IIM Shillong on Saturday. The session was conducted keeping in mind some points like using traditional and emerging styles of marketing, branding and packaging and how start-up ecosphere can be given a boost in the region.
Naveen Verma, secretary DoNER gave his inputs and shared his experience and gave real-life examples as to how a kiwi farmer from New Zealand could sell his produce in New Delhi and make money but a kiwi farmer from Nagaland does not have the resources or knowledge to do the same.
Professor Keya Sengupta pointed out how our emphasis on horticulture should not reflect myopic scope of inclusion and should extend to include medicinal as well as aromatic plants. She suggested that the government could start by holding an inventory and documenting all the varieties and species growing in the region so that future development plans become easier.
To this, Naveen Verma added that there is a need to also focus on our current processing capabilities saying that currently, pineapple cultivated in Tripura is exported to Bangladesh for processing. Similar is the case with the medicinal plants which are sent to Myanmar and Nepal to get processed. He pressed on the fact that in order to get maximum returns, it is imperative to develop agricultural processing units.
The Chairman of the Board of Governors, Falguni Rajkumar stressed on the need to focus on the uniqueness of the North Eastern region even as he mentioned the success of the North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project (NERCORMP). He focused attention to cold storage and transportation which is the main bottleneck in the sales of agricultural products in the region. A participant from the PGP batch of IIM Shillong suggested that micro-refrigeration could be considered as it could be used to keep the produce fresh until transportation and could help counter the lack of proper cold storage facilities. Verma then pointed out that the government has provided for cold storage facilities in places like Guwahati, Imphal and cities in Tripura, however there were no buyers for a lot of slots.
