Laudable initiative

Assam and the entire Northeast is a biodiversity hotspot. While turalists keep discovering new flora and fau species in the region, valuable species are disappearing forever thanks to our negligence and lack of enterprise. So an orchid and bio-diversity garden coming up at Durgapur village in Kaziranga is welcome news for the State. It is an initiative by the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) spread over 18 bighas, where more than orchid varieties are being grown, many of which are already rare. An effort is also being made to document these orchid varieties with detailed photographs in an exhibition hall. Apart from this, about 200 varieties of paddy, over 40 varieties of bamboo and some dozen varieties of cane are being grown with an eye to their conservation and sustaible commercial exploitation. Several farmers long involved with growing and preserving rare crop varieties in their lands have joined up with this project. Since it is useless to look up to the Agriculture department, whose huge infrastructure and budget mostly benefit its ministers and officials — farmers need to re-invent themselves in keeping with the times. Armed with appropriate knowledge and technical skills to leverage their experience, they can cooperate in such ventures, share information, locate markets, jointly push their products without middlemen, and have tourists beating a path right to their doorsteps. The Kaziranga orchidarium initiative can be fruitfully replicated with other agricultural products in different parts of the State.