JICA team at Longsachung village, Wokha.
Wokha, June 4 (MExN): Officials from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Ikko Watanabe, First Secretary (Food & Agriculture) Economic Section, Embassy of Japan in India, Vineet S Sarin, Chief Development Specialist, JICA India Office, New Delhi and Hidenobu Fujiwara, Representative, JICA India Office, New Delhi visited Nagaland to oversee the progress of the Nagaland Forest Management Project (NFMP).
As per a press release, they visited the Project Management Unit (PMU) office at the Forest Office Complex, Kohima and held discussions with the Officials of the NFMP on June 1.
During the meeting, a presentation was made by the PMU members on the progress of the activities covering all aspects of the project both physical and financial matters and a short audio visual of the project were screened. The visiting team commented that the project has made good progress so far. The JICA team also commented that they were impressed with the progress made especially in the GIS and MIS after they visited the GIS & MIS cell of NFMP, it stated.
Self Help Group (SHGs) from five Divisional Management Units (DMUs) viz. Zunheboto, Phek, Peren, Dimapur and Kohima had set up display stalls of the activities they undertook as a SHG at the Forest Office Complex for the visiting team to showcase the type of livelihood activities undertaken under the project. Ikko Watanabe inaugurated the SHG display stalls.
On June 2, the officials from JICA visited DMU Kohima and DMU Wokha and were hosted by the respective DMU heads Rajkumar M, IFS and SW Suman IFS. During the field visit, they were accompanied by Chief Project Director (CPD) Dharmendra Prakash IFS, team leader of the Project Management Consultant (PMC), Pranab.
At Terogvunyu village, Kohima, the JICA team laid the foundation stone for the village gate construction as an entry point activity under NFMP. The visiting officials also planted cherry saplings near the proposed site of the village gate. During a brief interaction with the village community, the JICA officials said that NFMP is a community project and encouraged the village community to work together for the benefit of the future, it stated.
The team visited Longsachung village, Wokha and inspected the nursery site, Jhum Agro Forestry (JAF) Model, Water Harvesting Structures (WHS) and had interactions with at least ten Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs) from the Batch I, II & III Villages as well as members of SHGs who were displaying products of their Income Generating Activities (IGA).
It may be mentioned here that NFMP provided revolving funds to SHGs to carry out their IGAs. The team also inspected the accounts and other registers maintained by the JFMC.
