Cashew Nut Processing Unit & Rural Knowledge Center inaugurated at Diglipur

Port Blair, Feb 26: The unutilized and underutilized hilly lands at Diglipur are being covered under Cashew crop. Being a least maintenance and promising return crop it is being promoted under Rashtriya Kriishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and High Value Agriculture Programmes of Department of Agriculture. The main bottleneck of the cashew production is the nut processing part. Manual de-shelling of cashew nut is a difficult process, and this is the main reason for not getting the desired result. Keeping in view of this difficulty, the department of Agriculture established a cashew processing unit at Keralapuram village, Diglipur. This unit is first of its kind in the entire Union Territory.
On 24th February 2012, Mr. A.S. Dagar Secretary (Agri), A&N administration inaugurated the Cashew Processing unit at Keralapuram, Diglipur in a simple ceremony, in presence of Mr. P. Prasad, Adhyakash, Zilla Parishad, M&N Andaman. The Director of Agriculture, Director (Rural Development), Assistant Commissioner-Diglipur, Chief Executive Officer, Zilla Parishad M&N Andaman, Pramukh, Panchayat Samiti Diglipur, PRI members, Officers of allied department, Farmers’ friends, farmers and other local people were present on the occasion.

There was another inauguration ceremony later in the evening hours at Nagabram Village, where new building of Rural Knowledge Centre was inaugurated by Mr. A.S.Dagar, IAS, Secretary (Agri.& RD) in presence of the same dignitaries present in the morning function. While addressing the gathering of more than hundred the Chief Guest expressed his views about the importance of Rural Knowledge Centre, and urged the local people to utilize the infrastructure and assets to gain knowledge and information. Adhyakash, Zilla Parishad, Pramuk, Panchayat Samiti Diglipur and Pradhan, Nabagram Gram Panchayat expressed their views on the occasion. Officers of various departments, PRI members, Farmers friend, farmers and other local people attended the function which concluded with vote of thanks given by Mr. Ramesh Kumar, Assistant Director (Agri.),Diglipur.