SHILLONG, July 27: The Meghalaya government is looking to expand the Jackfruit Mission buoyed by the positive impact of the project in improving the livelihood of the farmers in the state.
Jackfruit Mission 1.0, launched in 2018, is in its final year of implementation.
Talking to reporters after formally inaugurating a one-day event on sale of jackfruit products titled ‘Jack Start 2023’ at the State Convention Centre here on Thursday, Agriculture Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said that it is important to have continuity in any mission that the state embarks upon.
According to Lyngdoh, a five-year mission is on cards for the state government to evaluate the entrepreneurship generated out of the mission.
After interacting with farmer producer groups, the Agriculture minister said she learned that the mission has generated considerable employment avenues with the entrepreneurs earning between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 in a single day.
Lyngdoh said that she will prod Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on ‘Jack Mission 2.0’ and the chances for its launch next year with adequate funding for the programme.
Recalling that the sanction for first edition of the project was Rs 20 crore, Lyngdoh said that the government could allot only Rs 5 crore this time.
“Despite this huge shortfall of fund that was required to make this mission go ahead, it has yielded positive results,” the minister said.
“It is a good result of a mission mode programme for jackfruit because you now realize that we have markets, not just locally, but we now also have a high potential for foreign market linkage,” Lyngdoh said.
She said that locals in over 2,000 to 6000 villages in the state grow jackfruit in their backyard.
“We have more than a million jackfruit trees across the state and they are available in many parts of Meghalaya which grow in the backyard without much care and attention,” Lyngdoh said, adding that there is high potential for new entrepreneurs to start a profitable business in processing jackfruits.
She urged the officers of the Agriculture and Horticulture departments to continue to engage actively with the producer groups and ensure support to them while keeping a check on standards of food safety — which is what the international market looks for.
Earlier in his address during the inaugural function, Meghalaya Farmers’ (Empowerment) Commission Chairman, KN Kumar, advocated the need to have a National Research Centre for Jackfruit in Meghalaya.
He lamented that the state does not have an agricultural university as well as an agricultural research institution.
“We will have to depend on the Centre to help in setting up the National Research Centre for Jackfruit. This centre will be useful for the whole Northeast because it is going to be the global hub for jackfruit in the next two decades,” he remarked.
Kumar, however, stated that the National Research Centre is a necessity if the region is to become a global hub.
Talking about the Jackfruit Mission, he said that the government has understood the rules and the strategy of the game, and that there is a need to go for a big initiative to take jackfruit to the next level — with the launch of Jackfruit Mission 2.0.
