NEDFi hosts two sessions
Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, June 7: The organised two topical sessions was based on organic value chain development for the Northeast. The event was a business development platform that discussed the dynamics of regional business models within the frame of agriculture and allied sectors’ production specific to the region.
The event was conducted on June 7 at Hotel Acacia in Dimapur. It was organised by the North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd., (NEDFi). The first session focused on objectives and structure of a development scheme, the Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER).
The MOVCDNER is a central sector scheme, a sub-mission under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, launched by the ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare for implementation in the states of Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, and Tripura, during the 12th plan period.
The first session was conducted in the morning. During the session, manager of NEDFi Popy Sonowal gave a presentation, a slideshow explaining about the objectives and structure of the MOVCDNER scheme. She said that the scheme aims to provide 75% subsides to the Farmer Producer Companies (FPC) and 50% subsidies to the private entrepreneurs. She stated that the FPC can avail back-ended subsidy without credit link so that they are able to meet their share of the project cost. Before sanctioning of such units, the states need to ensure the feasibility and economic viability of the unit and technology being employed is of appropriate standard and acceptable to the market. Mission head quarter shall help the SLA in identifying the technologies and technology providing agencies or institutions.
The scheme is said to be implemented in a mission mode. The mission structure at central level will comprise of national advisory committee, executive committee, mission monitoring committee, and mission head quarter at department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare. At state level the mission will be implemented by the state level executive committee and will be executed through a designated State Lead Agency (SLA) in the form of state ‘organic commodity board’ or ‘organic mission.’ The SLA shall function under the overall supervision of the department of Agriculture and shall be manned by professional experts on contract. The SLA will be the nodal agency for implementation of mission components and for ensuring effective realisation of mission goals.
The scheme aims at promoting and production certified of organic commodities focusing on export oriented crops in a value chain mode to link growers with consumers. It also aims to support the development of entire value chain starting from inputs, seeds, and certification to the creation of facilities for collection, aggregation, processing, marketing, and brand building initiative.
The main objective of the scheme is to ensure safe and healthy food to everyone’s plate. Growing demands of population, industrialization, and globalization has made a significant need of organic farming in the country. The increasing demands in the sector led to focus on the North Eastern region for organic agriculture. North Eastern Region being traditionally an organic hub, it has the potential for development of organic farming because of its mostly rain-fed and hilly areas which can boost in organic agriculture.
After the presentation, there was an interactive session between the chairman and managing director of NEDFi, BP Muktieh, and the stakeholders which comprised of the Agriculture and the Horticulture departments, farmer producer organisations, Agriculture technology management agency, and the Nagaland Pig Farmer’s Association.
The second session for the business meet 2018 was conducted in the evening. During the session, the secretary of the ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, Naveen Verma released two books about ‘comprehensive report on skill development in Nagaland’ and ‘project profiles on micro and small enterprises for Nagaland.’
Many young entrepreneurs attended the programme during which they were given an opportunity to ask questions based on entrepreneurship. Muktieh, while responding to the questions mentioned that he was happy to see many young entrepreneurs coming up in Nagaland and stated that he could see loads of ideas in them.
Naveen Verma also appreciated the growing of entrepreneurship in Nagaland and advised the young entrepreneurs ‘to go step by step but to dream big.’
