GUWAHATI, July 16 ? Aromatic and medicinal plants in the North-East have tremendous potential to generate employment and income and efforts are on to commercialise their cultivation and use in the region reports PTI. The North-East Development Finance and Corporation Limited has started its own Research and Development Centre at Khetri in Assam?s Kamrup district to encourage unemployed youths of the region to take up their cultivation and ensure proper income generation.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has emphasised the importance of aromatic and medicinal plants in the economy of the State and has pointed out that the climate here is favourable for the cultivation of such plants. Agriculture is the backbone of the State?s economy where more than 70 per cent of the people are engaged. ?The State is facing the dual problem of unemployment and income generation. Therefore, the prime objective of the government is to generate gainful employment for the educated youth,? he says.
Gogoi points out that a major way to attract the youth to the field of agriculture is through taking up commercial cultivation of aromatic and medicinal plants and to process them locally so that benefits can be enjoyed by the local people. The Chief Minister says the NEDFi has played the role of the pioneer in setting up the Research and Development centre to commercialise aromatic and medicinal plants.
NEDFi has made necessary arrangements and networking to market the finished products as without proper marketing arrangement, agriculture development on a commercial basis usually fail to achieve the state objectives, he added. NEDFi Chairman- cum- Managing Director J P Saikia says the centre will provide technical guidance, extension services and help in networking with the buyers and sellers.
The first aromatic plant Patchouli'identified by NEDFi has been cultivated through NGOs and individual farmers covering an area of 1200 acres against a target of 1500 acres. During the current financial year, the scheme will generate employment for 1800 farmers, he says. Thirteen distillation plants have been set up in different locations of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh through NEDFi?s technical guidance and financial assistance.
The planting materials have been supplied to the farmers through the promotion of thirty nurseries and as many as 54 workshops, training and seminars were organised for them. Saikia says to solve the problem of marketing the oil, a local private company is buying the oil at a remunerative price which has proved to be very helpful for the cultivators.
Another aromatic crop Geranium, suitable for high altitude has been taken up over an area of around 105 acres in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland with two distillation plants already in operation. During the year, a third aromatic plant Vetevier which grows well in degraded sandy soil has been taken up for commercialisation. The nursery has been developed at the Research and Development centre, Saikia says.
The entire Morigaon district of Assam has been identified for commercial cultivation of the crop in collaboration with the district authorities, NABARD and State Bank of India. Saikia says that once the commercial plantation materials are ready , commercial cultivation will be taken up covering the entire district. Normally, oil is extracted from the roots and the present market price is Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 per kg of oil, he says. The R&D centre is all equipped with facilities like quality control laboratory, green house, mist chamber, nursery, a herbal garden, demonstration plots, model distillation plants along with a full-fledged training hall and hostel facilities.
Saikia further says that several innovative measures are being taken by NEDFi for benefit of rural artisans, women entrepreneurs and micro enterprises not only for their development but for providing extension services, technological inputs and quality control facilities.