Our Correspondent
Kohima | May 6
The state Directorate of Evaluation, has recommended that the state government immediately take measures to revive the sick Changki Valley Fruit Preservation and Canning Factory, a maiden venture of the state government. Commissioned in 1974 and upgraded in 1995, the factory is located at Longnak, the orange and pineapple belt, some 48 kilometers away from Mokokchung town. The department made the recommendation following an evaluation study undertaken by the directorate.
The first evaluation on the factory was done in 1975 and a quick review study was undertaken in June last year by the directorate as a follow-up to review its operational status. This was also to take stock of related developments since the first study, said a report on it, made available by the directorate.
According to the report, the factory is installed with a capacity of 250 MT per annum. It could otherwise have boosted production in huge quantities of finished products, but has been lying idle since 2006 primarily due to inadequate production of horticulture. Only the store sheds were in use.
This was despite the annual allocation and sanction of funds by the state government. In the absence of production, the factory’s earning was nil, the report said. The funds allocated and sanctioned by the government was found to be insufficient for investment in raw materials and capital. Despite the factory being redundant, staff salary and wages still constituted 76% of the factory’s total budget allocation, it said.
The report suggested that the government should take immediate steps to revive it, pointing out that failure to do so would only burden the state exchequer in terms of salary outgo and maintenance cost without any return or revenue from the factory. It also suggested that the government consider the disinvestment method or privatize the management of the factory. The government could also explore the possibility of private-public partnership mode to make the factory economically viable, it advised.
Some of the other suggestions made by the report include making additional capital investment, increasing research and development technical inputs or to modernize technology; increasing areas under fruit cultivation; forming self-help groups and training them to cultivate.
Recommendations were further made to market diversified range of hybrid or local fruits, enhancing capacities of the available human resource through capacity enhancement or skill development programmes exposure tours; expanding operational capacity; improvement of infrastructure and so on.
Reminding that the factory is a maiden venture of the state, the study concluded that notwithstanding its shortcomings, it has contributed towards enrichment of experiences and that the benefits accrued to the fruit growers too cannot be undermined. The experiences so gained could be used to run the factory profitably, it added.
