Arunachal Pradesh included under oil palm development scheme: Sharad Pawar

GUWAHATI: Union Agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said Arunachal Pradesh is included under oil palm development scheme.

Pawar who inaugurated a krishi mela at Pasighat on Wednesday said the Central Government's full support for fast growth in all areas of agriculture and food processing in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Minister added, "This year we have allocated more than Rs 15 Crore for National Food Security Mission (NFSM), Rs 32 Crore for Rastriya Krishi VikashYojana (RKVY) and Rs 48 Crore for Horticulture Mission.

He said, "We also appreciated that some areas of Arunachal Pradesh can produce oil palm and hence this year we included Arunachal Pradesh also under oil palm development scheme. I am also of the considered opinion that Arunachal has tremendous potential in bamboo development. The state has not yet used its fullest capacity to harness the benefit from the national bamboo mission. The state also needs to work on a mission mode on other plantation crops like rubber etc."

The minister stressed that there is need to develop processes and equipments through which perish ability can be reduced, marketable surplus can be transformed into value added products, which fetch high price, store longer and allow for sufficient time to market them.

"Ministry of Food Processing Industries would be always ready to help the state in developing the agro-processing sector. We would be very happy to help the state in building the cold chains," Pawar added.