The North East Centre for Technology Application and Reach (NECTAR) under the ‘Saffron Bowla’ project has identified a few locations in Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya for saffron cultivation, the Lok Sabha was informed. In Arunachal Pradesh, there is a good Growth of organic saffron with flowers. In Meghalaya, sample plantations were grown at Cherrapunji, Mawsmai and Lalingtop sites.
The total cost of the whole project is Rs 17.68 lakh for Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. Out of which, a tentative amount of Rs 6.00 lakh has been earmarked for Barapani (Meghalaya) site. The following sites have been identified in Meghalaya under the Saffron Bowl project: Barapani, Cherrapunji, Mawsmai, Shillong, and Lalingtop.
NECTAR is an autonomous Society, set up under the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, with its headquarters at Shillong, Meghalaya. With this, the government is looking at harnessing and leveraging Niche frontier technologies available with central scientific departments and institutions.