Our Correspondent
Kohima | August 21
Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio stressed on the need to effectively address water management, which he considered it “very crucial to our agriculture and horticulture growth.” Rio told this at the state-level horticulture conference here last week. Water management is an area which we have tended to ignore so far, but which is going to be critical if we do not intervene now,” Rio warned. The warning is also loud and clear-the world is heading inexorably towards a water crisis.
Every passing year, Rio said, the state is faced with the prospect of a diminishing water supply and diminishing ground water levels. Global warming has resulted in drastic changes in the world’s seasonal behaviours and the state too is feeling the change with the continuous decline in its monsoon rains and the increasingly high temperature even in cold-places like Kohima.
“These are new challenges which we are facing in our food production efforts,” Rio said adding that the time has come to take up proper water harvesting technologies and efficient usage of irrigation technologies for the crops.
Recollecting his recent visit to Israel, Rio said that he had the opportunity of witnessing technologies that had changed the landscape of Israel from a desert to a ‘land of milk of honey.’
“We are in talk with some of these companies for transfer of those technologies to the interested farmers on subsidized rates,” he said adding that the departmental officers themselves must be updated on these technologies for effective execution and for making the farmers aware of the requirements.
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