Hon’ble Governor Shri PB Acharya, urged the people of the North East region to have a humane relationship amongst each other without discriminating between tribal and non-tribal and their economic status or appointments. He also highlighted the importance of better infrastructure for farmers driving home the point that just increasing production of crops does not mean that much for farmers if the supporting infrastructure like transportation, roads etc are also not developed along with. Hon’ble Governor emphasized that the Universities must not be centers for education only but centers for Development also. It should not be factors for graduates but produce good human and intelligent, patriotic, skilled and useful citizens. They should know how to harness the potential of the region and create assets out of the natural resources.

In his address to the public present in the summit, Hon’ble Shri. Purohit told that the scientists have developed techniques and technologies to assist the farmers of our country for many years, but due to various systems failure, the farmers could not be helped much. Farmers are the food makers for the nations. There is huge untapped potential in NE region for augmenting value chains in agriculture through crop diversification and forward and backward linkages, including post-harvest handling and processing. First, the rich diversity of NE agro-ecosystems is a source of sustainable growth for the sector. Second, joint ventures between public research institutes and the private sector are seen more favorably today. Such partnerships could considerably augment R&D efforts. Third, agriculture can develop value chain processing activities in rural areas to meet the changing pattern of food demand in the country and to tap international markets. Fourth, crop diversification has become a potential source of agricultural growth, creating new export and employment opportunities. Fifth, livestock, fishery, piggery, sericulture and horticulture are emerging as important sunrise sectors. Because most livestock is owned by small and marginal farmers and landless households in rural areas, the rapid growth of these sectors benefits poor households.

He stated that “North-East is home to a wide variety of exotic vegetables, fruits, flowers and orchids – and clearly, there is great scope for both horticulture and agriculture”. And there is immense potential to expand the production and sale of orchid and flowers, replacing imports. Also, abundant in the region are fruits like kiwi and avocado, which, again, can replace Indian imports. New food processing initiatives would help extract greater value from crops like turmeric, cardamom, ginger, pineapple and king chilly (popularly known as Bhut Jolokia, or ‘Ghost Pepper). But there is bottleneck and hinges among private stakeholders to invest in Northeast that’s a really matter of concern. He also spoke about govt. run programs and possibilities that can be be explored to connect NE to rest of India. He outstretched his opinion about Govt schemes for NE in substantial investment subsidies, and in addition, the North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFi) which provides term loan up to Rs 1 crore at low interest rate. He introduced Shri B. Paul Muktieh, Chairman & Managing Director of NEDFi to the crowd. In continuing with the govt. initiatives to promote regional tourism, he highlighted the upcoming plans with NEC for setting up of a public-private North East Tourism Development Council, which will envisage to become a company that would be owned jointly by the NEC or the government. The three-day long event is expected to bring a large number of the national and international stake-holders from the industry, institutions, government and the development sectors to showcase the programs and schemes, products, technologies and services; and deliberate upon the issues and opportunities and the way forward.