Skip to main content

Sikkim for organic farming

By himalayanreview

Statesman News Service

GANGTOK, May 18: Sikkim had an opportunity to highlight the achievements made in the agriculture and horticulture sectors through Mr Somnath Poudyal, state agriculture minister at the 78th Annual General Meeting of the ICAR Society in New Delhi recently.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Poudyal emphasised on the need for horticulture-centric research in Sikkim with stress on evolving location specific technologies that are coherent with the social and cultural ethos of the locality.

Calling attention on the continuous decline of mandarin orange, large cardamom and productivity problems associated with ginger, Mr Poudyal urged for immediate measures to revive these crops in the interest of all farming community.

Important issues rose pertaining to development of cymbidium orchids' need for standardisation of production protocol, control of pests and diseases, the strengthening of the exiting ICAR centre at Tadong and so on.

Calling for research support in organic farming, the minister mentioned that the endeavour of the Sikkim government to become an organic state is a paradigm shift in policy. “The prime consideration for such a shift is environmental security, ecological sustainability, product brand leading to better farm returns and inheritance of a highly developed mountain agriculture system handed down through generations,” he said. The minister also requested the ICAR to explore the possibility of value addition and product diversification to a large number of indigenous herbs and shrubs found growing wildly and abundantly in Sikkim traditionally consumed as vegetables, sometimes as delicacies.

It was learnt that the Union agriculture minister Mr Sharad Pawar has conveyed his desire to visit Sikkim sometime in the month of June in connection with the foundation stone laying ceremony of the College of Engineering and Post Harvest Technology.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rongli my birthplace

By himalayanreview
BY SHITAL PRADHAN A small hamlet in an eastern side Silent raush on its way, The old silk route, More older it look Upon which I stay, Hey that’s Rongli, Rongli my birthplace Years went by, years dried up, Yet the small village is as it was, Silent, peaceful and introvert Today’s picture of Rongli, Houses as station bogie, Looks a cradle, from Chujachen, Upon which the blue sky, As if I can touch thee, Roaring River, As the legend we hear, Still watch with glee, The terror of 1890 somewhat forgotten, Yet another terrorizing moment, 68 was the year… 1968, When sky too wasn’t pleased. That was Rongli, Rongli of the past. Playing along the Baar-Pepal tree, Hiding in the Shivalaya, Watching videos and aloft Is a decent memory, now? Sweet time in treasure, Yet when I am in Rongli, I am happy, in whither sweet. Rongli my birthplace !
10 comments
Read more

India’s illegal occupation of independent Sikkim has to be reversed

By himalayanreview
Extracted from Pakistan Defence India’s “Chief Executive” in Gangtok wrote: “Sikkim’s merger was necessary for Indian national interest. And we worked to that end. Maybe if the Chogyal had been smarter and played his cards better, it wouldn’t have turned out the way it did.” It is also said that the real battle was not between the Chogyal and Kazi Lendup Dorji but between their wives. On one side was Queen Hope Cook, the American wife of the Chogyal and on the other was the Belgian wife of the Kazi, Elisa-Maria Standford. “This was a proxy war between the American and the Belgian,” says former chief minister BB Gurung. But there was a third woman involved: Indira Gandhi in New Delhi. Chogyal Palden met the 24-year-old New Yorker Hope Cook in Darjeeling in 1963 and married her. For Cook, this was a dream come true: to become the queen of an independent kingdom in Shangrila. She started taking the message of Sikkimese independence to the youth, and the allegations started flying thic...
19 comments
Read more

The coinage system of Sikkim

By himalayanreview
It is more or less a forgotten part of the development process of the then-small Himalayan kingdom, Sikkim . The introduction of the coinage system in Sikkim ceased the way it started. A study of the coinage system of Sikkim sheds light on the socio-economic and political history of the then-small state. The coins of Sikkim ended the way they appeared; they came from nowhere, and finally, they got lost out in the darkness. A handful of people around Sikkim and in the districts of Darjeeling now have these rare items in their collections. The coin of Sikkim is much sought after by numismatists interested in countries that no longer exist today. Before the British invasion of the land of Sikkim, the capital revenue system was never heard. Sikkim, being an agricultural foreground, had some parts of food grains given to the king as tax. Trade was carried out where things were exchanged between individuals. This system was prevalent even in the mid-19th century; oranges were exchan...
5 comments
Read more