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| Power, industry & commerce minister Pradyut Bordoloi inspect water hyacinth products at the NEDFi R&D Centre at Khetri on Wednesday. Picture by UB Photos |
March 28: Dispur today urged the state’s artisans to use technology to improve production of eco-friendly goods in order to tap global markets.
“Artisans should focus on improving the quality of eco-friendly products which have a good market worldwide. This can only be possible by upgrading skills on a sustained basis. Water hyacinth (locally called pani meteka) is abundant in the state and needs to be tapped optimally for production of utility as well as designer items like hats, vanity bags, shoes and lampshades. The need of the hour is to standardise products and take it to the buyers abroad. This is called forward linkage. In this way, the product also fetches better prices,” industry minister Pradyut Bordoloi said.
He was speaking at the valedictory ceremony of a 25-day workshop on “Water Hyacinth Craft with Technical Expertise from Thailand” at the NEDFi Development and Research Centre at Khetri in Kamrup (metro) district this evening.
“The government’s priority has been inclusive growth, so we are focusing on uplifting rural areas by generating income and creating jobs. In this regard, we have targeted small industries, which use local resources like water hyacinth. We will adopt a cluster-based approach to promote artisans producing water hyacinth items by giving them proper training,” Bordoloi added.
The workshop was part of a Rs 1.61-crore project organised by the North Eastern Council (NEC) in 2010-11. The three-year project being implemented by the NEDFi has already achieved its objective of covering 1,000 artisans.
A four-member team of trainers of the Department of Industrial Production, government of Thailand, trained 31 artisans from Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh during the workshop on the manufacture of water hyacinth products.
Appreciating the NEDFi efforts to initiate such a training endeavour, Bordoloi said the government had sanctioned Rs 5 crore for setting up of common facility centres for manufacturing water hyacinth products, across the state.
“Under the brand name Aqua Weaves, NEDFi has created a good market for water hyacinth products. In fact, during my visit to Europe, I had taken a few items, which were both appreciated and accepted. So, the idea is to add value to what our artisans produce and sell them at a better price,” Bordoloi said.
NEDFi chairman and managing director B.P. Muktieh emphasised sustaining a permanent linkage. “The artisans need to be in touch with the trainers from abroad and adopt a professional approach. NEDFi will focus on both technological upgrades and marketing linkage. Here, government intervention too will play a vital role in product improvement,” he said.
The NEC project has groomed 1,100 artisans of the state in two years. “We had focused on training and product standardisation in the (last) two years. Next year, we will focus on marketing the items through expos and setting up kiosks across the state,” said Ashim Kumar Das, assistant general manager (business development), NEDFi.