Dimapur, Sep. 22 (EMN):The commissioner-secretary for Horticulture Y Kikheto Sema, has urged departmental officers and staffs of the department to focus on timely implementation of all the schemes. They should implement all the schemes as scheduled, he said. The official stated that the authority will no longer tolerate delay in any work implementation.
Speaking at the officers and staffs of the department at the conference hall of the Horticulture directorate on Friday, the commissioner-secretary, while thanking the government for posting him to the department, recalled how coffee was taken out of the Department and given to the Land Resources Department in 2016. The Department failed implementation of the Coffee as Nodal Department for 20 years.
“That is the reason why the government had taken out the Coffee from the Horticulture Department and given to the LRD in the year 2016,” he said. Today, the LRD was doing Coffee development well in the state and had even entered into a MoU with an International Marketing Company based in Cape Town, South Africa, he said. “Today, Nagaland Coffee is one of the best in the world,” he added.
That was why there should not be any delay in implementation of work and everything should be on timely action, he said.
Kikheto Sema also said that the department and its District Horticulture Officers (DHOs) should properly plan budgeting works on fruits, vegetables, and floricultures. They had to study the surplus and shortfall on fruits, vegetables and floricultures in the state.
“Our priority will be to fill up the shortfall within our state first, and then they can think of supplying to the nearest states like Manipur and Assam, and then go for other metropolitan cities like Kolkata and Delhi,” he said. Finally, they could have market linkages with Bhutan and Bangladesh, he said.
He said the Nagas should be happy that the tree beans (Yongchak in local name in Manipur) had been growing in Nagaland well and they could have a huge market in Manipur where it did not grow abundantly in spite of high demand. They could be the main supplier of tree beans to Manipur, he said.
He said they would examine activities of all 16 Departmental Farms spread across the States and they would revive those farms working but close down those not viable.
He also said each DHO should identify certain roadsides near district HQs where they could start planting of variety of flowers which would give attractions to the passerby and travelers. They could initiate talks with the landowners for this purpose and the department could provide flower seeds and saplings and other technical guidance.
Officers from various districts also shared about the departmental activities initiated in their respective areas.
