Dimapur, June 4 (EMN): Officials from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) led by Ikko Watanabe, first secretary (Food and Agriculture) Economic Section, Embassy of Japan in India; Vineet S Sarin, chief development specialist, JICA India Office, New Delhi; and Hidenobu Fujiwara, representative of JICA India Office, New Delhi, visited Nagaland to oversee the progress of the Nagaland Forest Management Project (NFMP).
An update from NFMP stated that the officials visited the office of the Project Management Unit (PMU) at the Forest Office Complex, Kohima, on June 1 and held discussions with the officials. During the meeting, a powerpoint presentation was made by the PMU members on the progress of the activities covering all aspects of the project both physical and financial matters. A short audio visual of the project was screened.
It stated that the visiting team was impressed and commended on the progress of the project especially in the GIS and MIS after they visited the GIS and MIS cell of NFMP.
It added that the Self Help Groups (SHG) from five divisional management units (DMU) namely Zunheboto, Phek, Peren, Dimapur and Kohima had set up stalls to showcase the type of livelihood activities undertaken under the project to the visiting team at the Forest Office Complex.
On June 2, the officials from JICA visited DMU Kohima and DMU Wokha, which were hosted by the respective DMU heads namely Rajkumar M and SW Suman. During the field visit, the team was accompanied by the chief project director (CPD), Dharmendra Prakash, and the team leader of the Project Management Consultant (PMC) Pranab.
At Terogvunyu village in Kohima district, JICA team laid the foundation stone for the village gate construction as an entry point activity under NFMP. The visiting officials also planted cherry saplings near the proposed site of the village gate.
During a brief interaction with the village community, the JICA officials encouraged the village community to work together for the benefit of the future.
The team visited Longsachung village in Wokha district and inspected the nursery site, Jhum Agro Forestry (JAF) model, water harvesting structures (WHS) and had interactions with at least ten joint forest management committees (JFMCs) from the Batch I, II and III villages as well as members of SHGs.
It mentioned that NFMP has provided revolving funds to SHG to carry out their IGA. The team also inspected the accounts and other registers maintained by the JFMC.
