Nagaland chief minister, T.R. Zeliang stressed on the need to lay more emphasis on bamboo development in the state. Addressing the ‘World Bamboo Day’ celebration, jointly organized by Nagaland Bamboo Development Agency (NBDA) and ministry of DoNER here at Bamboo resource centre as chief guest, Zeliang said Nagaland was the first in India to adopt bamboo policy in 2004 and had the privilege to host the first ‘World Bamboo Day’ in 2010 at Kisama, with participants from India and abroad. He said that though Nagaland had made laudable strides in development of bamboo as a resource over the years, there was much more needed to be done.
Zeliang highlighted major areas of concern which needed to be urgently addressed if bamboo was to fulfill its true potential of being an effective vehicle for bringing sustainable development to the region. The need for studying species of bamboo and identifying its appropriate uses, rationalisation of the huge existing technological gaps and adaption of markets and providing proper linkages, insuring steady and reliable supply or raw materials, skill up-gradation of workers, including participation by foreign, Indian and other institutional donors, etc were some of the major concerns.
Zeliang remarked that bamboo and its uses remain largely traditional, localised and unorganised.
He opined that Government of India through the ministry of Agriculture, Forest and Tribal Affairs, and by involving other international agencies, could play a key role as part of programme convergence. Adoption of the concept of cluster formation at the village level with fiscal support by way of providing financial incentives or supplying improved machineries could be done, he said. Zeliang also called upon the gathering to re-orient their approach especially in the light of the fact that the region was home to almost 60% of the country’s bamboo reserves with boundless availability of raw material by our backyard, if scientifically exploited with required backup support.
He was also confident that it would provide lucrative employment to many but also go a long way in giving the much needed boost to the economy of the region.
He further added that Nagaland would have to continue to look forward to DoNER ministry and NEC for providing the required technical, financial and proactive (interventional) support. Zeliang expressed gratitude to DoNER ministry for recognising the activities and supporting the NBDA and also for their decision to notify the up-gradation of NBDA to Regional Bamboo Research Centre (RBRC) and charting out the road map for formation of the North East Bamboo Development Council (NEBDC).
He also informed that NBDA was affiliated with handicrafts and carpets skill sector council and agriculture skill council of India and would be carrying out skill development trainings under national skill development council and ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
Zeliang appealed all stakeholders to come forward and contribute in harnessing the true worth of the “green gold” which abounds in our region and be proud player in joining the onward march of our nation towards actuating the “make in India” and “skilling India” clarion call of the prime minister.
During a speech and declaration of NEBDC, the guest of honour, DoNER secretary, Naveen Verma stressed that there was still a lot that had to be done for Northeast and that it was in a general meeting where they decided to form the NEBDC. Notwithstanding the structures they may have at the national level, Verma said they still managed and decided for NE to have an institution with all the eight states combined.
Citing the issue of bamboo plantation that came about during a meeting in Delhi, Naveen brought about the national agro policy mission under which states could get money for plantation of various species including bamboo. He said that the policy contains no restriction on transit which was flagged to all governors and chief ministers and that he looked forward to a discussion on it as well.
Further, he said that they were not able to mainstream bamboo. In order for it to go mainstream, he requested the state government’s intervention which was, to frame a schedule of rates for bamboo buildings both for urban and rural areas. He was happy to learn that Nagaland fields about 9.8 lacs of bamboo, which meant that there was supply and that the only problem was to convert it into wealth. “If we look at the entire value chain, one of the takeaways from this conference is to come up with a scheme. Why not come up with a mission value chain for bamboo products for NE?” he asserted.
While delivering welcome address, NBDA advisor, Naiba Konyak highlighted the immediate targets of NBDA to achieve 60,000 hectares of bamboo plantation by 2030 in the state. He said this could be achieved more effectively by setting up a high capacity ‘plant tissue culture laboratory and nursery’ within NBRC at Dimapur.
Earlier, the celebration was hosted by Dr Tolto Metha and Amongla C, while Mountain music academy presented echoes of the North-East.
The chief guest also hoisted the World Bamboo Day flag followed by bamboo anthem by Margaret Shishak school of music, Patkai Christian college and vote of thanks proposed by APC & mission director NBDA, T. Imkonglemba Ao IAS.
The chief minister also presented awards to best VBDC 2017 to Ghotovi village VBDC, Dimapur and Totok Chingha of Mon district, promising entrepreneur 2017 to Menuolhoulie Kire and promising artisans 2017 to Ruovilhoukho Chuzho.
The celebration was attended by chief secretary, Pankaj Kumar, ministers and parliamentary secretaries, officials from DoNER ministry and NEC and others. The inaugural session was followed by technical session on the topic “road map for North East Bamboo Development Council (NEBDC) and “bamboo value chain development in NER”.
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