Saturday, 10 September 2022 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Pithoragarh district administration organised an exhibition of Bedu (Himalayan fig) at the Raj Bhawan here on Friday. Governor Lieutenant General (retd) Gurmit Singh said that efforts will have to be made to take the Bedu products from the local to the global level. Work should be done on the packaging and branding for this purpose. He said that efforts should be made for world-class packaging to increase demand for these products across the country and abroad. Singh said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi talking in his Mann Ki Baat programme about the work being done on Bedu in Pithoragarh district is a matter of pride for the whole State.
The governor said that Bedu products will have to be taken from cooperative to corporate In order to take the local products to the international market, it is necessary to focus especially on packaging, processing, laboratory and supply chain. Appreciating the effort undertaken by the Pithoragarh district administration, he said that this is a good initiative towards increasing employment opportunities. This activity will provide employment to the locals while also improve the local economy, he said. The government further said that a laboratory should be prepared in Pithoragarh to test the quality of these products. He told the district magistrate Ashish Chauhan to take this as a pilot project and prepare a road map.
It is pertinent to mention that on the initiative taken by Chauhan, women of Sudarshan self help group have been making jam, squash, chutney, juice and other products from Bedu in Pithoragarh. The DM informed that 500 kilogrammes of Bedu products were prepared this year. A target has been set to prepare 250 to 300 quintals of such products next year. Online marketing of the products is being done through Hilans with demand for the products coming from various States. The Pithoragarh district Panchayat head Deepika Bora, processing expert Kavindra Singh Chauhan, team leader Kuldeep Bisht and women from Sudarshan Avjeevika Sansthan were also present on the occasion.
