Shillong, Oct 01: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma today released the Mission Jackfruit 2018-2013 document at a small function held in Hotel Pinewood, Shillong.
Speaking on the occasion the Chief Minister said that the focus of the mission is to increase value addition to the readily available fruit and bring in economic benefits especially to the people from the rural areas.
“This super food is readily available in our State. It presents an opportunity for us to turn it into a high value product with minimum work and investment”, he added
Highlighting the crucial role of entrepreneurs for the success of the mission the Chief Minister urged the hotels and the hospitality sector to tie up with village level product suppliers and SHGs to boost the rural economy.
“The government can create the policies, infrastructure and create the eco system for businesses to grow but it will require the involvement of all the stakeholders to make the mission a real success”, the Chief Minister said.
Terming the creation of the Directorate of food processing as a positive step the Chief Minister expressed hope that other such missions will be initiated in the near future.
Addressing the gathering, K.N. Kumar, Agriculture Production Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary to the Government of Meghalaya, gave the overview of Mission Jackfruit.He said that the mission will benefit the farmers and boost the rural economy.
During the function, the Chief Minister also unveiled ‘Superjack’, the jackfruit mascot, which will be the brand ambassador of Mission Jackfruit across social media platforms.
The Chief Minister also gave away the certificates of excellence to Hotel Heiga VNS, Hotel Centre Point and Little Chef Cafe’, Shillong, who were adjudged winners of the Jackfruit Cuisine Tasting event, held on the 11th of August 2018.
The draft Mission Jackfruit document was first released by the chief Minister for public and stakeholders’ comments on the 5th of July 2018 on the occasion of the Jackfruit Festival held in Shillong which attracted a number of very constructive comments and suggestions and which have been incorporated in to the final mission document.
Mission Jackfruit is a five year mission which aims to generate employment opportunities for over 60,580 farmer entrepreneurs, catalyse 70 SMEs, impact 2340 entrepreneurs and 300 Nano enterprises, mobilise 1180 Farmer’s Friends, 200 ATMA functionaries and 200 local chefs.
A number of pre launch activities centred on Jackfruit had been undertaken by the State Government through the Meghalaya Institute of Entrepreneurship which included the training of more than 100 farmers, 2 state level and 2 regional workshops, district level jackfruit festivals, a soft launch of Jack of the Day dishes and a Jackfruit Tasting event, all of which received enthusiastic responses from all.
Through the Mission the Government will make an investment of about 67.08 crores over a 5 year period of which 40.07 crores will be the central share with the rest being borne by the State Government.
