SHILLONG: The state government will soon release a draft Jackfruit Mission that will seek an investment of about Rs 80 crore over a period of five years and benefit 82,000 farmers, said a senior official on Friday.
Speaking at the first state-level jackfruit festival organised by the Department of Agriculture under the theme ‘The humble Jack-with a large heart’, Additional Chief Secretary, KN Kumar said the festival is meant to trigger urban demand even as 75 per cent of ripe fruits is wasted in the state.
“The losses incurred by Meghalaya due to the wasted jackfruits, especially from the Garo Hills region and border areas of Khasi and Jaintia Hills, will therefore be about Rs 400 crore per year,” said Kumar as he emphasised the vast economic opportunity that needs to be tapped.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma will be release the draft of the mission.
“The Jackfruit Mission will create about 50 small and medium enterprises and spawn about 200 home-scale nano enterprises,” Kumar said.
He added that out of the Rs 80-crore investment, more than Rs 50 crore will be mobilised from the Government of India and for the remaining amount, the state government will seek state plan assistance over a period of five years.
The chief minister has written to the Union Minister for Agriculture to consider the possibility of establishing a National Research Centre on jackfruit in Tura to promote research and technology induction in jackfruit value addition, which will be useful for the whole region.
Meanwhile, Sangma said, “We need to create the right policy, right system and simply tweak it a bit and you will see the results and the entire dynamics change.”
On the reason why the government selected jackfruit as one of the missions to be launched immediately, he said, “These are the areas where we already have our strengths in.”
Pointing out that the festival is only the beginning of things to come, he said, “There is a defined outcome that has already been set. It is well planned mission and you will see this in the next five years, how it will roll out.”
According to Sangma, the Jackfruit Mission will encourage entrepreneurial activities and will help the farmers of the State to generate additional income from the fruit.
Informing that the cabinet has passed a resolution to create a new directorate for food processing to facilitate promotion of agriculture and horticulture products, he said that the directorate will also facilitate entrepreneurs who will be keen to start ventures in the field of food processing.
“Food processing directorate will specifically look into value addition of agriculture and horticulture produces,” he added.
As per the Agriculture Information Wing, the area (in Hectares) under jackfruit cultivation is 1646.6 and the production is 16754.2 MT and the yield (Kgs/hectare) is 10175.
Among the districts, the highest producers of Jackfruit (in Kgs/hectare) is East Garo Hills (10896), North Garo Hills (10610), South West Garo Hills (10400), South Garo Hill (10347), West Garo Hills (10290), East Khasi Hills (10078), Ri-Bhoi (9847), South West Khasi Hills (9754), East Jaintia Hills (8232), West Jaintia Hills (7915), West Khasi Hills (7800).
A variety of food items such as Jackfruit chips, pickles, sweets, wine, biscuit, cakes, curry, chop, pakoras, squash etc were put on display which were prepared using unripe and ripe jackfruit, even the seeds also.
