Government to commercialize local beverages

Our Correspondent

Itanagar, April 18: In an effort to undergo study on traditional alcoholic beverage – Apong (Chang) - for its preservation and commercialization, the Arunachal Pradesh Department of Science & Technology on Tuesday entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with Dibrugarh University of Assam.

The publication of the report will be made available by the next six months, an official communiqué informed here today.

On behalf of Dibrugarh University, Professor of Chemistry Pradip Kumar Gogoi and Associate Professor Jitu Ranjan Chetia were present for the MoA inking, while the Science & Technology department was represented by its Director CD Mungyak and Joint Director Debajit Mahanta.

Arunachal Pradesh State Council for Science & Technology Chairman Bamang Mangha informed that traditional alcoholic beverage of the indigenous communities reflects their traditional knowledge of brewing having a potential to develop it as alcoholic beverage for the contemporary world and also spoke on its possibility to develop it as a market compatible product like ‘Pheni’ in Goa. The proposed research work would involve documentation of traditional knowledge adopting methodological tools of rapid rural appraisal (RRA), participatory rural appraisal, focus group discussion, biological analysis for assessing alcoholic component, nutrient value and chemical constituent, market value and network experiments through different wine clubs of the country.

He said this initiation would go a long way so that the local items of the state are also popularized and it can be preserved for long days while competing with other alcohols and provide an opportunity to the local growers of millet, rice and barley to take up such cultivation as a pilot project.