Meghalaya CM releases draft policy on jackfruits

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma recently launched the draft policy on the first state-level jackfruit mission at jackfruit festival 2018 in Shillong

The one-day jackfruit festival, which displayed and sold various value-added jackfruit items, was organised by the department of agriculture with the theme - "the humble jack - with a large heart."

The government has come up with the initiative to release a draft policy to boost the market value of jackfruits. This is considered a major step towards tapping the unexplored potential of horticulture crops and the rich natural resources available in the state of Meghalaya.

While releasing the draft policy, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma focused on the need to expand the market of the nutritious fruit. This is a five-year plan mission. The idea is starting with awareness, training and food processing and how to set up the market. The purpose of doing this plan is that jackfruit trees are already there. Around Rs 400 crores of loss was incurred by Meghalaya, especially in the Garo hills, as the fruit is not being utilized," said Conrad Sangma.

The five-year plan is targeted to promote research and technology induction in jackfruit value addition, which will be useful for the whole region.

Meanwhile, Sangma has written to the Union Minister for Agriculture to consider the possibility of establishing a National Research Centre on Jackfruit at Tura.

Moreover, CM Conrad Sangma also stressed the need to create the right policy and right system for yielding better results which would lead to the change in the entire dynamics of the mission.

Through this newly launched mission, the government would be able to tap the potential of jackfruit and aims to generate employment opportunities for over 80,000 farmers. Also, with such mission on cards, nutritious fruit like jackfruit is soon likely to emerge as one of the major cash crop of the region.