State to promote Agar, high end species

SHILLONG: Meghalaya Government will now promote the plantation of high end value plant species like Agar and Sandalwood to a larger extent.
As the Government has came up with an idea to promote plantation of organic agar and bamboo. The authorities in order to regulate, raise harvest and trade the plantation of high end value species, require people who are well-experienced and acquainted with various laws governing species like Agar and Sandalwood.
Hence, the Cabinet on Friday approved the name of Balbir Singh Gurm, retired Assistant Director, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Ministry of Environment and Forest as the OSD in the Agro Forestry and Agar Plantation Development Authority.
Maintaining that the Government has even simplified the rules for felling of such plants to enable farmers to take advantage of the remunerative returns from the agro forestry, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma Sangma said that since the species are governed by the Wildlife Act 1972 and it cannot be harvested form forests. The Government has come out with a programme to encourage farmers to plant agar in their own private farms besides registering as farmers and declaring the number of plants they planted.Sangma pointed out that as the Agro Forestry and Agar Plantation Development Authority has been notified, the body would give legal support to get all the permission of harvesting of different species and enable the farmers to trade on the species which are governed by the Convention of International Trade in endangered species.
He also lamented that there was no proper policy to enable farmers to take advantage of the plants, which are indigenous to the state, and the State Government is taking necessary action in this regard now.
“If the policy was there for farmers for a long time, our farmers would have been very rich,” he told reporters.