State legislators attend ministerial conference at Gangtok

EMN
DIMAPUR, DECEMBER 1

It is good news for northeastern states as the region will soon have five new Agriculture and allied colleges in Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim respectively. The Central Government has already approved to set up a college of Veterinary Science in Nagaland, a college of Food Technology in Manipur, a college of Agriculture in Meghalaya and a College of Horticulture both in Mizoram and Sikkim.
This was announced by the Union Minister of Agriculture & Food Processing Industries, Sharad Pawar, during the Conference of Agriculture and Horticulture Ministers of North Eastern States held at Gangtok on November 28 last, organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India.
The one-day conference, chaired by the Union Minister Sharad Pawar, discussed on various subject matters related to agriculture and horticulture status. It also deliberated on the scenarios in NER including the opportunities in agricultural and horticultural value chain integration, cold chain development and market linkages in the region.
The Union Minister in his address, has asked the NE states to avail various schemes under agriculture to build better infrastructural facilities for supporting post harvest management, marketing and food processing, which have been identified as the main bottlenecks for development of agriculture in the region.
State Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture and chairman Nagaland State Agriculture Marketing Board (NSAMB), Dr. Benjongliba Aier and Parliamentary Secretary for Horticulture, Nagaland, Neiba Kronu also attended the conference. They were accompanied by joint director of Agriculture, D. Suokhrie and joint director of Horticulture Pawan Kumar.
During the conference, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Dr. Benjongliba Aier gave a paper presentation on the strategies, constraints and future vision of agriculture and food security, while Parliamentary Secretary for Horticulture Neiba Kronu stressed on the needs of various infrastructures in horticultural activities.
The programme was also was attended by the chief minister of Sikkim, senior officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, senior officials from NEC, SFAC, ICAR, NERAMAC, etc., and host of senior officials from the eight NE States. While other ministers and commissioners & secretaries of all the NE states and various organizations also took part in the discussion.