Nagaland govt prioritising organic cultivation: Official

The Nagaland government is according top priority to organic cultivation, a senior official said. Advisor to horticulture department, Mathung Yanthan, while inaugurating a pineapple festival at Molvom village in Nagaland's Dimapur district on Saturday, said a draft state policy for organic cultivation is being prepared.

"Nagaland joins the rest of the world in promoting and developing organic agriculture for sustainability," he said. Yanthan, also a legislator, said over 800 hectares in the state have been brought under the Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North East Region, a central scheme for increasing certified organic production.

He said Molvom, where the pineapple festival is being organised for the first time, and its neighboring villages produce an average of 20,000 metric tonnes of organic pineapples every year. The official said the establishment of Farmer Producer Companies (FPC) will help cultivators better market their produce.

Yanthan urged farmers to blend modern technologies with traditional agricultural practices as complete technological shift might not be feasible in the hilly terrain of the state. Zhou Zejiang, Asia president of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements inaugurated a large replica of pineapple in Molvom.

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