On January 19th, Union Ministry of Agri- culture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW) approved the “Turmeric Cluster” for West Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya under Cluster Development Programme.
This was announced during a day long conference on ‘India Cold Chain Conclave’, organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in conjunction with the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi.
During the conference, Secretary MoAFW, Manoj Ahuja, formally announced the decision with regard to setting up of the Turmeric Cluster in West Jaintia Hills under Horticulture Cluster Development Programme and nod to the ‘Acceptance Letter’ to Meghalaya for implementation.
The West Jaintia Hills Turmeric Cluster envisages development of Lakadong turmeric on three verticals of the entire value chain, including pre-production-production, post-harvest management and value addition and logistics, marketing and branding, in order to make it globally competitive.
Dr. Vijay Kumar D.,Commissioner and Secretary to the Government of Meghalaya Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, while highlighting the broad contours of the project, said that Meghalaya State Agricultural Marketing Board Cleve Colony Shillong, with the support of the National Horticulture Board and technical support of Grant Thornton (Ministry’s Consultants for the CDP) invited RFPs for selection of Implementing Agencies (IAs) to execute the verticals in West Jaintia Hills and Meghalaya Basin Management Agency emerged as the successful Implementing Agency for the project.
The project is estimated to cost 52.31 Crore which includes MoAFW share as grant-in-aid and the IA shall also provide equity. The project is expected to be implemented in four years and it is expected to transform the landscape of the horticulture ecosystem in Jaintia Hills.
