Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) Meeting for Off Farm Sector conducted by NABARD Sikkim RO in Gangtok on 20 March 2024
Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) was conducted by NABARD, Sikkim Regional Office at Gangtok on 20.03.2024, under the Chairmanship of Shri Sanjay Kumar Gupta, GM/OiC, NABARD Sikkim RO. The meeting was also attended by Dr. Sandeep Tambe, APCCF, Forest Department, GoS; Other participants of the meeting as committee members included Dr. Shasanka Bora, Senior Scientist, Spices Board fo India; Dr. Chewang Bhutia, Scientist, KVK; Shri Nirmal Choudhary, Asst. Director, MSME-DFO; Shri Raj Lama, Chief Coordinator, SEED Cell; Shri Atanu Bandopadhyay, Regional Manager, SBI; Smt. Yanki Bhutia, Director, RSETI; Shri Anit Lamichhaney; LDM, SBI, Gangtok; Shri Pradeep Ahmed, LDM, CBI, Pakyong and Shri. Nima Lepcha, President, UPOS.
The meeting started with a warm welcome to all the participants by Shri. Sanjay Arohan, AGM, NABARD.
Shri Sanjay Kumar Gupta, GM/OiC, in his keynote address, elaborated on the importance of off farm sector for the removal of income inequalities and to increase the employment opportunities among rural population. He highlighted that the convergence of thoughts and actions amongst institutions and stakeholders can bring impactful results. He stressed upon the importance of marketing in focus areas along with credit and non credit support to potential activities under the off farm sector. Besides, he highlighted the positive impact of NABARD schems like OFPO, Rural Haat, Rural Mart/Mobile Van and digital marketing support, skilling, etc. in supporting livelihood of rural artisans, weavers, SHGs, FPOs, tourism sector and agri/tech start-ups. While stressing on the need and importance of RAC forum for the stakeholder institutions and departments, Shri Gupta urged all members to identify suitable clusters and activities so that the public resources are utilised in a more efficient manner for the high priority identified set of areas and activities for visible impact and change in lives of rural populace, especially the women.
A brief presentation was then made by Shri Pravin S Muley, DGM, NABARD on the aspects like objectives of RAC meeting, status of off farm sector in Sikkim, thrust areas and interventions in off farm sector and also the potential activities in the rural areas.
Dr. Sandeep Tambe, APCCF, Forest Department, Govt. of Sikkim stressed on the importance of rural livelihoods and suggested that the interventions could be implemented through certain grass-root level well managed institutions and have required magement capabilities and promise to change the ground level situations. He also highlighted some of the important niche areas to work in the off farm sector. He also shared his insights about the livelihood profile of Sikkim, vulnerability assessment of villages and opportunities in trekking tourism, nettle natural fabric, high-value Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPS).
Other committee members also highlighted the importance of initiatives in spices sector, packaging, food testing laboratory facilities, intellectual property rights, copyright, branding, overcoming challenges in creating first generation entrepreneurs, opportunities for expansion and improvements in weaving activities, awareness creation and sourcing of candidates for available wide range of training facilities provided by institutions like RSETI.
All committee members actively participated in the open discussion and shared their thoughts about the challenges and potential in the off-farm sector.
