TURA, June 1: The state government will cash in on seed ball broadcasting to enhance the green cover in Meghalaya.
Informing this, Forest and Environment Minister James Sangma said that the seed ball broadcasting is an efficient way of seed dispersal, and the rate of germination is as high as 70 per cent, comparable to conventional plantation methods.
“The exercise can be done either by throwing or by using catapults for dispersing from a distance,” he said in his address at the launch event of Seed Ball Initiative at Harding Theological College, Tura.
The launch event was part of Meghalaya Environment Week 2022, which kicked off on Wednesday.
The first day of the weeklong event was celebrated as Environment Technology Day, showcasing potential technologies that can better the natural resource management in the state.
James, who was the chief guest at the programme, informed that the weeklong event is to promote awareness on environmental issues and various interventions that can address them.
Informing that seed ball broadcasting can be done by either throwing or by using catapults for dispersion, he said that drones will also be used to disperse seeds in inaccessible terrains.
“I am pleased to learn that the Meghalaya Basin Management Agency (MBMA) has developed these drones in-house and is eager to witness the demonstration of this technology,” James said.
The Minister also informed that the Centre of Excellence is carrying out an extensive exercise to map the Natural Resource Management (NRM) boundaries of 6000-plus villages in Meghalaya through GPS technology.
“The GIS lab of MBMA has undertaken the exercise of capturing the boundaries of the villages with the help of the local communities and Village Community Facilitators (VCFs). These VCFs are trained by MBMA to facilitate community-led NRM planning and implementation on the field and are skilled in capturing village boundaries using GPS and Google Earth images. They will traverse the boundaries along with the village elders whose knowledge is most needed. The lab has created NRM boundaries for about 2200 villages thus far,” he said.
It may be mentioned that students from across the state also took part in seed ball broadcasting at their respective blocks.
