Shillong, May 7: Meghalaya Governor, Ganga Prasad on Monday urged Japan Ambassador to India, Kenji Hiramatsu to support in transferring appropriate technology related to strawberry planting material in the state.

Hiramatsu who visited Meghalaya for the first time met also Meghalaya chief minister, Conrad Kongkal Sangma apart from the Governor,and discussed various issues related to cooperation especially development of infrastructure and business opportunities including food processing.

The Governor told Hiramatsu that Meghalaya also has good climatic conditions for undertaking the Shiitake mushroom cultivation and farmers in the state can benefit immensely if a similar gesture is extended to Meghalaya.

“The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) had in the past collaborated with the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore through a private company YATS Corporation and facilitated the technology transfer on mushroom cultivation,” Prasad said, while praising Japan for being the world leader in Shiitake mushroom production.

“In our state, we do have native species of woody trees that are suitable for Shiitake mushroom cultivation,” he said.

The Governor also urged Hiramatsu to take appropriate steps to review the security situation in Meghalaya since the security situation has improved in the past few years, adding that such step will help in building a long term relationship between the people of Japan and India.

The Japan Ambassador said that Japan was also looking forward to have more cooperation not only business, but people to people cultural exchanges as the region has lot of things in common with Japan.