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Our Correspondent
Mokokchung, Sep. 27 (EMN): The department of Land Resources handed INR 30,60,000 to 24 villages under Mokokchung district at the culmination programme of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana-Watershed Development Component (PMKSY-WDC) project.
The culmination programme was held at Town Hall, Mokokchung with Shashank Pratap Singh, ADC Mokokchung as the special guest on Monday.
The amount handed over to 24 villages will be managed under broad guidelines for exit protocol of WDC and is auditable by the concerned authority.
According to Dr. Sashiyangba, District Project Officer, LRD Mokokchung, the project started in 2013-14 but due to delay in sanction for one to two years plus pandemic, it got delayed and could be completed only now.
Looking at the perspective of Nagaland and Northeastern states, Dr. Sashiyangba said during the rainy season, water could not be stored and land would also be washed away which led to a decrease in production from the land.
He, therefore, said PMKSY was implemented by the department with a target to reduce the shifting cultivation and transformed to permanent cultivation, as such, many small projects were initiated along with imparting technical training and tips.
He informed that along with imparting training, exposure trips were organised and areca nut, rubber, agar, tea, coffee, horticulture crops were provided for plantation. Watershed and soil moisture conservation projects were also initiated.
He further informed that the department also went the extra mile to provide a source of livelihood to landless people with programmes such as handicrafts, micro-enterprises. Tools and machines such as grass cutters and tractors etc. were provided.
He further informed the department had covered a total of 1160 hectares of land under various areas in plantation projects, 94 WHS had been initiated and 610 soil moisture conservation projects were implemented.
In this connection, he asserted “all these small initiatives were targeted to generate employment and to provide the springboard for economic growth in the future.”
Dr. Sashiyangba further stated that as per the department’s assessment, there is a paradigm shift where migration of people from rural to urban areas is decreasing while urban people returning to the rural area to start plantation has been detected.
He further observed that this new changing trend where urban people invest in plantations is immensely contributing to employment opportunities for the daily wage earners in the rural areas to toil on their plantation sites.