Director of Horticulture encourages unemployed educated youths to boost sector growth
Guwahati: The Horticulture and Food Processing Directorate in Assam is seeing a lot of potential for growth and is encouraging young and educated citizens of the state to come forward and be part of the market expansion.
Business Northeast (BNE) conducted an exclusive interview with the Director of Horticulture (DoH) and Food Processing, Triranga Bharatiya Borah to have an insight into the sector and its proposed plans.
BNE: What is your experience in the field of horticulture, particularly in relation to government organisations?
DoH: Horticulture is the only avenue in agriculture where we can expect some educated unemployed youth and even some entrepreneurs. If I compare it with other states of the country, we are far behind because of the landscape. But we have got tremendous potential for horticulture in the entire North East. But due to the fragmentation of the land, the land holding is very small. From the very beginning when I was the Agriculture Extension Officer, what I have seen is that mostly the government policies on horticulture were on the nutritional aspect, not the commercial aspect. So, we could not develop large orchards from where we can think of some processing units. It’s very difficult to aggregate the products from different districts of Assam. Now we are coming up but not like other states.
My experience is that our educated youth should come forward to adopt horticultural practices as their livelihood. It takes very less area. If they plant very nicely within one bigha or two bigha they can earn more money than agriculture.
So, we are providing more training and everything is now available on YouTube. We are also sending some entrepreneurs to other parts of the country and some other institutions. The main thing is that we need a good market. The second thing is that the post-harvest management system should be very strong in our state.
BNE: Can you outline your understanding of the current horticulture sector in Assam and the challenges it faces?
DoH: The major challenge is that we must be self-sufficient in planting so that our harvest is good. We have to expand the area of cultivation of fruits, vegetables and horticultural crops. Horticulture includes fruits (pomology), flowers (floriculture), vegetables (obericulture) and spices. We are mostly confined to ginger, turmeric and black pepper. Now, we are thinking of nutmeg and cinnamon in some parts of the state. Other important things include medicinal and aromatic plants. These are the main crops we are focusing on. The challenge is that if we want to have some land where I can go for area expansion in an orchard mode, we cannot find that kind of quality land as most horticultural crops are perennial. We have to plan accordingly. We may think of some intercropping. We have to develop fruit eating culture. In the entire North East, most of the people are fond of fish and meat. Milk and fruits hardly make their regular diet. That should be developed. Our entire horticultural marketing system is not organised. That is the main problem. The aggregation system is not good. Transportation of products to other parts of the country is not good. All fruits are coming from outside. We have good quality of fruits in our state.
I am very happy that some youth these days are showing their efficiency in the area expansion of very good quality fruit orchards. They can be ideal entrepreneurs for other horticultural growers.
Some districts like Baksa, Chirang, Udalguri and Kokrajhar are going ahead in horticultural production.
BNE: What strategies would you implement to promote and enhance the horticulture industry in Assam?
DoH: I cannot build an industry and give it to farmers. My duty is that I can suggest where you can go for the processing industry and they have to give a subsidy. The Government of India is very much interested. Even our honourable Chief Minister inaugurated a processing industry at Chaigaon called Bhogali Jalpan. He is very happy. Our agriculture minister is also focusing on the horticultural sector. But I, through your channel, appeal to all young entrepreneurs to come forward with limited resources and we can develop small-scale industries. There is no need for big qualifications to start a processing industry.
This year, we are going to establish 80 small processing units where we are going to spend about Rs 25 lakh. For 80 units, we are going to spend Rs 8 crore on subsidy for these units. If any bank shows me that it is giving the loan sanction of Rs 25 lakh, immediately I will deposit the subsidy amount to the bank. They will not release the subsidy to the entrepreneur. This is a confidence-building measure.
Our boys should think of branding their products and find out how others are doing.
BNE: How would you engage with farmers and stakeholders to encourage the adoption of modern horticultural practices and technologies?
DoH: In horticulture, we cannot say that we can bring lakhs of farmers. Yes, there are some sectors like the production of spice. Again, there are some sectors that can aggregate the products that we already have for bringing to the market. Many farmers are now sending me pictures. It is found that Assam lemon is sold at a throwaway price. But I am not a businessman. I cannot bring the lemon and sell them. I can only give them facilities. If they bring it to Guwahati, I am ready to sell them in the Delhi market. A few months back, I did a very big promotion of Assam lemon in Delhi NCR. There is a very good response in Noida, Ghaziabad, New Delhi, North Delhi, South Delhi and Gurgaon. Nobody thought about that. Only there is an area expansion of beautiful citrus that got the GI tag from our state.
We have a packed house for export in Azara near Airport. We are trying to develop honey bee production in a very big way this year. Our honourable Chief Minister has given one booster to one central government project by introducing the state honey mission this year. In a very limited area with 10-15 honey boxes, they can earn a good amount of money. The floriculture mission is coming. Every year, Rs 125 crore is draining out from flower sales.
The area is quite vast and the technology need is very high. We are getting technology from Israel, the Netherlands and from other parts of the world. But we are unable to use it properly in our state. The states like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are going well ahead.
BNE: The state government is focused on sustainable agriculture. How would you ensure that horticulture practices align with sustainability goals?
DoH: Sustainable agriculture is to protect the environment and produce. I proudly say that our department never encourages farmers to buy pesticides and chemicals. Here we are implementing the organic agricultural system. We are trying our best to develop organic Farmer Producer Companies. The clusters will get organic certification after which they will get easy access to the international market. All our programmes are sustainable programmes.
BNE: As the Director of Food Processing, what strategies would you implement to promote and enhance the food processing industry in Assam?
DoH: The industries department is having a food processing programme like us. This directorate was started in 2015. Since then, we are giving importance to small processing units. If I want to start a big processing unit, I have to think about the raw materials. So, if the unit can process daily a hundred metric tonnes of fruits, from where will you get the materials? I have told to the Union Industry Minister as well.
BNE: How would you encourage and support the establishment of food processing units in rural areas?
DoH: My target is rural areas only… We are going to establish some mushroom production units, some pack houses. First, the district administration or district agricultural officer, field level officers have to decide where they want to start the processing unit. Whether the raw materials are available or not? Also, how the processed products will come to the market? Do they have good branding and packaging? After deciding all these, they will give the proposal. I am very happy that I have received about 20-25 proposals. The Centre has sufficient funds. If I cannot spend then I have to return it.
BNE: Describe your approach to developing and implementing food safety and quality standards in food processing units.
DoH: We are having a close contact with Food Safety people here. Instructions have been given by the honourable High Court. A mandate has been given by the honourable Chief Secretary and the Additional Chief Secretary. A team has been formed to check different inlets of vegetables and fruits before entering the city. This is the first initiative taken in the entire North East. No state has given such an initiative in other parts of the country.
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