SHILLONG: The ginger production centre in Ri Bhoi’s Umsning is an embarrassment for the state government, said Congress’s George Bankyntiew Lyngdoh in the House on Wednesday as he listed the shortcomings of the project.
During the question hour of the budget session, the Umroi MLA said the seeds from the centre “are not disease-free”.
The unit is cost-ineffective and the government is rearing a white elephant, George said and suggested that the “failed” unit should be turned into a research centre and a ginger mission be launched.
Agriculture Minister Banteidor Lyngdoh said the cost of production (per tonne) in the past three years was Rs 2.03 lakh per metric tonne. To this, George said, “It is humourous as the production cost is nearly four times the market rate.”
In the written reply, Banteidor said annual production of ginger seeds meant for distribution to farmers in 2016-17 was 8.5 MT, 2017-18 6.5 MT and 2018-19 is 7.9 MT.
As for annual ginger requirement, East Garo Hills tops the list with 5,095.5 MT followed by West Garo Hills with 3,744 MT and North Garo Hills with 2,494.5 MT. East Jaintia Hills is last on the list with 22.5 MT.
The total amount spent annually by the department on administrative charges of ginger production was Rs 40.51 lakh in 2016-17 and Rs 43 lakh in 2017-18. For 2018-19, it is Rs 46 lakh.
The minister informed that the objective of establishing the centre in Umsning is to gather, maintain and multiply different varieties of high-yielding ginger seeds and distribution of quality disease-free planting materials to meet the requirement of farmers.
