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Union Minister Reddy launches ‘soil testing lab’ at Nagaland to bolster agri practices

Union Minister Reddy arrived in Kohima Friday and inaugurated the State Soil Testing Laboratory where he stated that the Government of India has been at the forefront for ensuring that soil quality is effectively managed to make agriculture more productive and sustainable.

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Kohima: Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and DoNER G Kishan Reddy inaugurated the State Soil Testing Laboratory at the Nagaland Directorate of Soil & Water Conservation in Kohima.

According to an official statement, Union Minister Reddy arrived in Kohima Friday and inaugurated the State Soil Testing Laboratory where he stated that the Government of India has been at the forefront for ensuring that soil quality is effectively managed to make agriculture more productive and sustainable.

He said Soil management is one of the most important interventions under the national mission for sustainable agriculture therefore; establishment of a soil testing lab will help and boost the rural farmers and agricultural sector by enabling systematic correction of the soil samples and analysis by generating timely test results.

He stated that, with the breathtaking landscapes, peaks, rivers and valleys, the North Eastern states have wealthy tourist destinations. NE states are the land of opportunity, the land of investment, employment generation, tourism and medicinal plants etc, and Nagaland being the home of Naga chilli, kiwi, cardamom, pineapple, bamboo shoot and other cultivating vegetables achieving to export the products to UK for the first time this year, has boosted the farmers to market the products more not only in other states but export it to other countries as well.
Reddy said he was from a rural background and understands that, the importance of technological intervention in agriculture and horticulture product yields a major difference in quality and quantity.

He also expressed contentment over the quality of the lab equipment with more comfortable instrument to analyse both micro and macro nutrients and further enlightened that this lab will benefit the farmers, students research, scholars and the Agricultural fraternity. Reddy concluded that, the Prime Minister is regularly discussing on the importance of North East states and with this special focus, the Government of India has allocated Rs. 6000 crore to the NE states on farmer scheme this year.

Nagaland Minister for Planning & Co-ordination Land Revenue, Parliamentary Affair Neiba Kronu in his speech described the Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy as efficient and a practical person having the background of engineering and agriculture and a social worker. He said Nagaland is a land of rich bio-diversity and also a hot spot of bio-diversity in the world as its soil is very rich, that can grow any crop and considered to be the youngest soil in the world. He also described that the soil of the state to be very fertile due to the forest and having moderate rainfall of 2000mm to 2500mm in a year.

Nagaland Director of Soil and Water Conservation K. Zhekheto Awomi gave the technical report of the project ‘Establishment of State Soil Testing Laboratory Building & Equipment at Kohima, the project was funded by North Eastern Council (NEC), Union Ministry of DONER and the date of approval was on 29th June 2017 and the actual commencement of project was undertaken on 29th March 2018. He added that the cost of the Project was Rs. 371.70 Lakh with NEC share (90%) Rs. 334.53 Lakh and the State share (10%) Rs. 37.17 Lakh.

Meanwhile, State planning & coordination department conducted a review meeting of state implementing departments of schemes under DoNER ministry at Kohima, attended by Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy.

At the meeting, Reddy said DoNER ministry was a coordinating agency and its purpose of to coordinate all the schemes and projects of the Centre and carry out its proper implementation in the NER. He assured that he would hold review meetings with all the ministries and discuss the schemes, projects with the ministers, senior government officials of the government of India, department wise. Reddy also assured that he would review with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who he said was very keen on developing the NE region. Reddy, however, said the State Government needed to pay more attention to proper implementation of schemes, as this would pave the way for more projects to come up in the near future. He assured that more priority would be accorded to Nagaland for more schemes and projects.

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