''I have requested the Prime Minister to formally launch the NLUP programme which he has accepted in principle,'' Mr Thanhawla, who is just returned from New Delhi, told reporters at his office here.
The chief minister reiterated that the Centre showed keen interest in the NLUP and had formally approved Rs 2,750 crore to implement the project in the state during the next five years. It was yet to be okayed by the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs, he informed.
The NLUP, the major poll plank of the Congress in Mizoram before the 2008 Assembly elections, basically aims to replace the traditional slash-and-burn method of cultivation with more sustainable land-based means of livelihood.
About 80 per cent of the state's farmers still practice the traditional slash-and-burn method of cultivation, locally called jhum, which has resulted in degradation of forest lands and worsening of the soil condition.
The chief minister said the NLUP aimed to support 120,000 families in the first five years. He said the departments of Agriculture, Horticulture, Veterinary, Industries, Forest, Fisheries, Sericulture and Soil and Water Conservation would be involved in the scheme.
The NLUP aims to restore ecological balance by providing the farmers sustainable and permanent land-based means of livelihood.
''The NLUP intends to keep 60 per cent of the state's total geographical area under forest cover and the remaining 40 per cent for land-based development,'' Mr Thanhawla said, adding, ''If the project achieves its goal, we can bid goodbye to the destructive and unproductive shifting cultivation.''
''The main strategies would include accelerating the growth in agriculture sector to around four per cent and larger investment of private sector through farming,'' he added.
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