Horticulture college to be set up in sikkim: pawar

SNS, Gangtok, 28 November 2013: Union minister of Agriculture and Food Processing Industries, Mr Sharad Pawar today announced setting up a Horticulture College in Sikkim. Inaugurating the Conference of Agriculture Ministers of North-Eastern States here at Chintan Bhawan today, he also announced the establishment of cold chain system (subject to availability of power) and sanctioned re-designation of ICAR to NRC Organic Farming.

While delivering his inaugural address, Mr Pawar said: “The conference I hope will focus on the critical needs that require the attention of the state as well as central government”. Minister Pawar that the Northeast region holds tremendous potential in the agricultural front on account of its fertile lands, abundant water resources, dependable rainfall and vast bio diversity.

However, in the context of the trend of single crop cultivation in the Northeast region, he suggested the need to adopt crop diversification to suit the agro-climatic conditions of the region.

The Minister also urged the concerned States to make an integrated effort for post harvest management, marketing and food procession, by using funds under various Central Schemes in an innovative manner by focusing on these activities.

The National Mission for Food Processing should also be utilised for this purpose, stated the Minister.

He later apprised about the Ministry’s dedicated approach in establishing specialised institutions in the NE during the 12th Plan for development of human resources, in the form of educational research and training institutions. Earlier, Chief Minister of Sikkim, Mr Pawan Chamling, in his keynote address, informed about the initiatives of the Government of Sikkim in the field of agriculture to attain higher level of growth.

He stated that the State provided an enabling environment for sustainable growth in these sectors, and thus a variety of programmes were launched in adequate measure to promote these sectors. The Chief Minister also threw light on the organic policy adopted by the State by launching Sikkim Organic Mission to make Sikkim a fully Organic State by 2015.

The Chief Minister further stated that certain common areas of concern to the Northeastern States would need the intervention of the Union Minister especially in terms of providing a special package to tackle food security issue and sustainability of mountain farming system.

“Based on inherent strengths of each State, we need to form a large network of cold chain system, bring about farm mechanisation, more liberal crop insurance policy, protected cultivation, water harvesting and micro irrigation etc”, stated Mr Chamling.

The Chief Minister laid down eight proposals before the Union Minister, including establishment of Horticulture College, Sikkim Institute of Food Technology, for the creation of a facility for post-harvest technology and value addition.

To aid the farmers to market their products better, the need to establish cold chain facilities right from the farm to the terminal market was felt.

As Sikkim is the first State to go organic in totality, the Government has submitted a proposal to the Central Ministry with request to re-designate the present ICAR Centre at Tadong as National Research Centre in Organic Farming.

He also asked for integrated development of orchid. The minister was requested about Rejuvenation of Large Cardamom to retrieve the lost glory of Sikkim as the biggest producer of Large Cardamom which is mostly exported to other countries.

Since Sikkim will become the first fully organic State in the Country, the chief minister requested to provide a special package of Rs 100 crore to boost the organic mission of the state.

“The Central Ministry has been pleased to sanction establishment of one Mega Food Park for the State of Sikkim. However, due to scarcity of land, certain existing guidelines may be relaxed for a State like Sikkim. The 50 acres of land required may be made 30 acres due to the land terrain which the State Government will arrange as per guidelines of the Minister” he added. During the programme, the Honourable Union Minister also released the book “Organic Sikkim-Leading the Change” written by Dr Tej Partap and Dr C S Vaidya.

Speaker of Sikkim Legislative Assembly, Ministers of Agriculture from Northeastern States; Cabinet ministers, parliamentary secretaries, Union secretaries, Secretary North East Council, Principal secretaries and Secretaries of the North Eastern States, distinguished officers from Government of India, officers from North-eastern States, and officers from concerned departments of the Government of Sikkim were present at the inaugural session of the conference.