ITANAGAR: The Jorhat-based CSIR-NEIST has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a farmers' cooperative society of East Siang district in Arunachal Pradesh, to promote cooperation in scientific research and dissemination of technology related to aromatic, medicinal, floriculture and other important plants, stated communiqué.
The institute has undertaken the plan of setting up about 15 multi-locational experimental research fields in the North East region. The plan includes five in Assam, four in Arunachal and one each in Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura, to fulfill the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in doubling the farmers' income in the next few years.
The MoU was signed between CSIR-NEIST and BosingBangoFarmers Cooperative Society Ltd of Pasighat on Wednesday, wherein NEIST Director Dr G Narahari Sastry inaugurated the second multi-locational experimental research field at Runne, informed an official communiqué here.
Principal investigator of CSIR Aroma Mission Dr S P Saikia and co-investigator Dr Mohan Lal and a team of scientists from CSIR-NEIST were present on the occasion.
The main aim is to achieve identification, domestication, and cultivation of rare, threatened and endangered species of medicinal plants to sustain the modern pharmaceutical industries. It also aims for sustenance of India's strong traditional system of medicines. For this, some of the crucial factors are breeding of new plant varieties, identification of stable performance through multi-locational trials, integration of modern science along with market and industrial application potential.
High scale production of these medicinal plants would be helpful to meet the industrial demands as well boosting the country's economy. The first field was inaugurated at Rajapara, in Assam's Kamrup district in collaboration with Aroma India Pvt. Ltd on September 15.
Sustaining the current activities of the aromatic, horticultural, floricultural, fruits, vegetables, rotational crops, new hybrids varieties and creating new space for medicinal plants and herbal gardens in bringing the health benefits to society and also derive benefits from our immensely rich heritage, culture and traditional knowledge in health care and pass it to the farmers of NE India.
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