On Saturday at Sangtemla Ward Community Hall, Mokokchung, an awareness program on Agri and Allied sector was conducted by Kohima Ao Officer Telongjem (KAOT), a philanthropic organization that began in the year 2003 with an objective to assess the progress of the Aos, socially and economically. The program focused on various ways to become economically sustainable through agriculture and its allied sectors and encouraged entrepreneurs to venture into agri-allied space more.
Imtimenla, Joint Secretary and Mission Director of NSRLM; Rongsennungba, Director of Fisheries and Animal Resource; Dr. I Amenla, Joint Director of Agriculture; Meyasashi, Joint Director of Horticulture; Alemkumzuk, Dy. Director of Sericulture; Dr. Simon Ao, Project Director of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry and Dr. Sashiyangba, DPO, Land Resources, Mokokchung were present there as resource persons.
Speaking at the program, drawing an analogy of how the government funds various agricultural projects to fishing, Er. Moa Aier, President of KAOT, said that ‘giving the fish alone’ is no longer economically sustainable and therefore, must rather focus on ‘how to fish’ to become economically stable.
“The entire world is changing not only on a geopolitical level but even economically and socially. The change can be seen even here at our home and hence, we should also start changing together with the world,” he said.
While talking about how Mokokchung has always held strongly to the culture and traditions, he pointed out that cultures and traditions can be preserved only through economic sustainability and hoped that Mokokchung, which was once known as the cradle of intellectuals and educated people, can also become a cradle for economic renaissance.
Speaking on the importance of Agri and allied sectors, he talked about the concept of ‘bio-theft’ and also reminded that every revolution happens with an agricultural revolution and that, it was time for an agricultural revolution for economic sustenance.
Value Addition
Dr. I. Amenla, co-convenor of KAOT and Joint Director of Agriculture department, gave her presentation on how entrepreneurs can capture the space for ‘value added products’ from raw materials produced by farmers and prompted the youths to take advantage of the recently held festivals like Cucumber Festival in Aliba and turn it into the likes of Hornbill Festival and generate revenues from there.
Fisheries
Rongsennungba, Director of Fisheries and Animal Resource highlighted the scope of hatcheries, ornamental fisheries, integrated fish farming and value-added fish products.
Women & SHGs
Imtimenla, Joint Secretary and Mission Director of NSRLM expressed how their main mission is to reduce poverty and bring improvement in livelihoods on a sustainable basis. Activities such as Bank Sakhis, according to her, was one of the most successful projects of empowering women and encouraged various Self Help Groups to come together and work together.
Horticulture
The few avenues in which horticulture can provide self-employment was shared by Meyasashi, Joint Director of Horticulture. According to him, producing nurseries of fruits, flowers, vegetables, spices, aromatic and medicinal plants, and greenhouse production of flowers and vegetables has great scope in Mokokchung.
Ericulture
Alemkumzuk, Dy. Director of Sericulture shared that since Ericulture is the most dominant form of sericulture in Nagaland, he encouraged people to plant castor and tapioca to rear the silkworm. He said that castor seed and tapioca can be used for making value added products such as castor oil and starch respectively and, therefore, can get three products from a single farm.
Animal Husbandry
Dr. Simon Ao, Project Director of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry suggested people to pursue range piggery with indigenous pigs for ethnic pork production, raise beef and goat and to have co-operative dairy farming. However, he said the main constraint behind all of this has been the feed and hence encouraged people to produce feed ingredients such as soybean and maize.
Coffee
Dr. Sashiyangba, DPO, Land Resources, Mokokchung, highlighted that Nagaland possess favorable soil and agro-climatic condition for coffee and that, coffee from Nagaland are popular in demand in the international market due to its various flavor resulting from intercropping plantation.
The program had Imtinungla Longkumer, EAC of Mokokchung, as the chairperson who in her concluding remarks said, “this habit of us relying on government subsidy must change and asked people to seek inspiration from farmer groups like ‘Healthy Harvest’ from Aliba village.
The program began with the invocation and exhortation by Yudang Jamir, Addl. Director, Administration Training Institute, who briefed about KAOT and its activities including its ‘Civil Service Aspirant Scheme’ where they vouch to give Rs. 50,000 to any Ao citizen that clears UPSC prelims. He also highlighted how KAOT has always been ready to help and highlighted some of the works they had done over the years including the donations they made while constructing Ao Senden office, the salary they once provided for People’s College and many more.