There is potential for setting up plants for manufacturing resins from Ginger Oleo plants and extracting oil from Cardamom. Development and marketing opportunities is readily available in the region for art and craft based industries as there is abundance of bamboo and cane in the forests of Darjeeling District, and there is a growing demand for such products due to large inflow of tourists in the region.

As it is well known that the tea industry in the region is the oldest and the most established. Darjeeling Tea is also world renowned for its high quality and great flavour, which provides the commodity with high potential for export. It is heartening to see that small farmers are also cultivating tea plants to sell their leaves to factories; around 12 farmers in the district have started this venture. Setting up of more tea plantations will also provide scope for associated industries like manufacturing of tea garden tools and tea-chest. Large availability of timber in the region can be used for manufacturing wood furniture, plywood veneer, sawmill, blackboard, dense jute and wood particle board. It must be noted that timber and other trees are grown to provide shade for tree plantations.

Apart from this floriculture, horticulture and agro-processing also has tremendous prospects in the region. Waste products from the food processing industries can be used for making fibres for bags, clothes, mats etc.

There is also no dearth of herbal and medicinal plants in the Darjeeling district and industries based on them have high potential for growth due to great demand of such products all over the world. These medicinal plants can be used for products like emetine, reserpine, copolanine, staramonium, becognin, ephedrine and camphor oil. Herbal medicines can also be produced by cultivating identified medicinal plants such as cinchona – which already has plantations in the Darjeeling district – and other herbs. There is also ample scope for cattle and poultry feed, milk processing, tanning of leather made from hides and other associated industries.

We must also look at the viability of starting rubber plantations and sericulture plantations because this will generate employment for a large number of people in the North Bengal region.