KIMIN, May 8: A review meeting was held on Saturday at Centre of Excellence for Bio Resources and Sustainable Development of Arunachal Pradesh State Council for Science and Technology at Kimin to take stock of progress and achievements made by the centre.
The meeting was attended by Director cum Member Secretary, Arunachal Pradesh State Council for Science and Technology, C D Mungyak, Director, Centre for Earth Sciences and Himalayan Studies, Tana Tage, Project Director, Dr Debajit Mahanata, ADC, Kimin, Bekir Nyorak, Joint Directors, Liagi Tajo, Bamang Apo, OSD, Nyelam Tath, amongst others.
Chairing the review meeting, Arunachal Pradesh State Council for Science and Technology, Chairman, Bamang Mangha lauded the efforts by scientists and officers of the centre for achieving excellence in the field of bio resources by exploring the hidden treasure trove of natural resources of the state.
Expressing happiness over the achievements, he exhorted the scientists to embark upon research activities that can have more societal benefits and help boost  economy of the state through natural resources. “Arunachal Pradesh is bestowed with vast natural resources, which could not be tapped due to lack of scientific interventions”, he said adding that state government needs to focus more on such scientific based research activities to take state in the path of self sustainability to realise the dream of Atmanirbhar Bharat vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Atma nirbhar Arunachal.
Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Ajay Chagti informed the participating delegates from the Finance, Planning and Law departments that this centre of excellence was set up with the support of central government on project mode for three years, which is likely to come to an end shortly. The world class infrastructures that have been created through this project need to be sustained for which support of state government is called for, he said.
He further said that it is the collective responsibility and onus lies on us to convince the state government to take care of the employees for their job security so that brain drain is avoided. 
Deputy Secretary, Law, Dani Belo stressed on tackling bio piracy, which is taking place across the world, citing otherwise the state’s natural resources would be exploited by unauthorised parties. We are lucky to have this Centre of Excellence in our state, which is taking care of our resources, he added.
Deputy Secretary, Finance, Takhe Kani while expressing his satisfaction on the progress of the project said that the achievements made by the Department of Science and Technology is commendable and appreciable and it is a stepping stone towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the state government.
Joint Director, Planning Department,  Okep Tayeng, suggested the department to take up more international and national collaboration projects in the field of bio technology that can really help the state government to generate more avenues for the youths, farmers and entrepreneurs. He also suggested to impart training to the prospective farmers through S&T interventions to enhance the productivity in sustainable way. 
Dr Debajit Mahanta, Project Director through his power point presentation showcased the achievement of three years of its journey in which CoE for Bio Resources and Sustainable Development of Arunachal Pradesh State Council for Science and Technology has created the State of the Art Orchidarium for conservation and multiplication of priority orchid species alongwith its satellite units in villages with a view to promote orchid based entrepreneurship in rural areas of Arunachal Pradesh. Under this, the Department is doing Orchid Germplasm Conservation, Vegetative propagation of orchids and micro propagation of orchids to enhance its value addition. Apart from this, the department is engaging banana fibre extraction and processing through units, which were set up in few selected districts of Arunachal Pradesh with the technical support of ICAR-CIAE, Coimbatore. Till today, more than 100 beneficiaries have been selected based on interviews and availability of land for banana cultivation and more than 3000 banana saplings have already been distributed to the beneficiaries for the cultivation.  
In order to preserve and revive the indigenous rice of Arunachalee tribes, the Department has its exploration, collection and documentation of 16 rice varieties from Ziro,  Lower Subansiri, having phytochemical properties, nutritional value and antioxidants. Towards protecting the endangered local rice varieties, the Department had collected 126 traditional rice landrace samples for germplasm registration and accession numbers with NBPGR, New Delhi from Seven districts of Arunachal Pradesh namely, Papum Pare, Kurung Kumey, Kra Daadi, Upper Siang, East Siang, Lower Subansiri and East Kameng.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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