The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-North-East Institute of Science and Technology (CSIR-NEIST) has been working on CSIR-Aroma Mission with the objective to propagate the high yielding varieties of citronella and lemon grass, patchouli, kaempferia galanga in the northeastern states.

The institute has signed an agreement with more than 30 farmer’s groups and NGOs for propagating the aromatic plants in more than 3000 hectares of land by ways of facilitating improved distillation units including establishment of marketing channel besides implementing its Floriculture Mission, Nutraceuticals and Wellness Mission, CSIR said in a release.

It said that development of high yielding variety, production of quality planting materials of aromatic and medicinal plants, cultivation and demonstration of floricultural crops, installation of processing technologies, along with experimental fields are important activities being carried out for the benefit of the farmers and entrepreneurs in the Northeastern Region.

It also mentioned that CSIR-NEIST is the one and only multidisciplinary laboratories of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of the central government located in Jorhat and having two branch Laboratories, one in Manipur (at Lamphelpat, Imphal) and another in Arunachal Pradesh (Itanagar).