Arunachal: Chowna Mein held meeting with rubber board officials
Chowna Mein had taken up State farmer’s problems with them when they called on to him.
ITANAGAR- In a series of meeting held separately with officials of Rubber Board Zonal Office, Guwahati and Palm Oil Industry, Ruchi Soya Industries Limited, Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein had taken up State farmer’s problems with them when they called on to him.
In the meeting with Binoy Lukose N, Joint Production Commissioner of Rubber Board Zonal Office, Guwahati, Mein urged the officials of Rubber Board to make more field visits and to interact with the farmers to know the actual problems face by them in tapping, processing and marketing of their products. He said that many farmers in the foothills in East Siang, Lower Dibang Valley, Lohit, Namsai, Changlang and Papumpare districts have taken up Rubber Plantation which is in mature stage but due to lack of buyers coupled with technical know-how for tapping, processing and marketing of the products, most of the farmers are no more interested to take up rubber plantations. He said that there is large scope for expansion of rubber plantation in the State but first we must let the matured plantations to take-off and let the people see the benefits derive from the rubber plantation in order to win the confidence of the farmers back and revive Rubber cultivation in the State.
He requested the officials of Rubber Board to impart training to the farmers in tapping and processing and organize awareness camps from time to time. In the meeting, issues to facilitate farmers with post-harvest processing units like Smoke House, Rollers etc in feasible areas were also discussed. He also asked the Joint Production Commissioner to submit a concept paper for inclusion of Rubber in the Policy for Plantation Crop in the coming budget.
Binoy was accompanied by Development Officer, John V Zechariah, Assistant Development Officer, Summie Doye and Vice President – Head Business, M/s Harrison Malayalam ltd Kerala, Biju Panicker. Among others, Director Trade & Commerce, GoAP, Sonyung Modi was also present in the meeting.
DCM also had a fruitful discussion with Sanjeev Gayen, Sr Manager Plantations and Sri Manoj Sharma, Manager Plantation of Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd (Oil Palm Division) when they called on to him in his office today. He urged them to expedite the establishment of Palm Oil Processing Factory in Arunachal Pradesh to boost the confidence of the farmers to take up Palm Oil Cultivation. While citing that the Govt of Arunachal Pradesh has kept a target of bringing 15000 hectares of area under Palm Oil Cultivation Under National Mission for Edible Oil – Oil Palm scheme by Govt of India in the first year, we need to expedite the establishment of Palm Oil Processing Units to win the confidence of the farmer to take up the Palm Oil Plantation which are reluctant to grow due to non-marketing of their Palm Oil produces. He also asked them to tie-up with the Govt Nurseries of Agriculture and Horticulture Departments for production of saplings for distributing it to the farmers.
Sanjeev Gayen informed that currently State have more than 3000 hectares under palm oil cultivation and yielding 20-30 tons per hectare in its 4th year of cultivation which is encouraging. He further informed that the company is buying the Palm Oil Produces from the farmers @Rs8000 per ton. He assured that once the approval by the Govt of Arunachal for the establishment of Palm Oil Processing is granted, it will take only 6 months to establish the first Palm Oil Processing Factory at Niglok in East Siang District by Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd. The company is also planning to establish Palm Oil Processing Units at other areas of the State, the MoU of which was signed in the year 2014.
Deputy Chief Minister had another productive discussion with senior officials from Arunachal Pradesh State Council for Science and Technology for developing Science & Technology activities in the State and for establishment of one State-of-Art Orchidarium in eastern Arunachal for conservation & developing the Orchid resources of Arunachal Pradesh and setting up of one Space Museum in collaboration with ISRO in the State.
Officers from Arunachal Pradesh State Council for Science and Technology were Er. C. D. Mungyak, Director cum Member Secretary, Dr. Debajit Mahanta, PD, DBT-APSCS&T CoE for Bioresources and Sustainable Development, Kimin and Dr. T. Madhan Mohan, Consultant Adviser, DBT-APSCS&T CoE.
