Sunday, January 5, 2025
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Arunachal fruit growers take advantage of Technology Mission

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Itanagar: Unknown to most of Arunachal Pradesh, the Lower Dibang Valley district is emerging as the fruit bowl of the state with its farmers making optimum use of the Centre’s Technology Mission.

The state’s Horticulture Department reaped the benifits of a favourable sub-tropical and temperate climate of the valley and the Technology Mission to produce a bountiful crop of orange, pear, jack fruit, banana, pineapple, peach, kiwi and plum in the last few years.

Particularly successful is the valley’s orange cultivation which is spread over an area of approximately 2,000 hectares. The total production of oranges in the current financial year amounts to 800 metric tonnes, which in itself is a record in the region. Dature Miuli is one of the farmers who have benefitted the most.

Miuli today owns 13,500 orange plants while Thusi Pulu, another farmer, owns 3,000 plants and Miranda Miuli owns 3,000 plants. They have all taken optimum advantage of the Technology Mission and literally turned the district into an orange bowl.

“The orange production in even a small garden every season gives good returns. Therefore, I have been gradually increasing my area of cultivation,” Dature Miuli said.

According to the Horticulture Development Officer, R Sora, Koronu-Injono-Simari-Balek-Abango and Samak Nalah are areas with high yielding capacity and contributes more than 50 per cent of the total orange produce in the district. “In not too distant future, people here would become self-reliant by producing sufficient oranges,” S K S Gautam, the District Horticulture Officer, said.

The department has a citrus nursery at Balek at about 10 kms from Roing. The nursery serves as the source of imparting technical know-how besides generating interest in the local population. Besides oranges, the department is also eyeing to encourage and propagate production of ginger in the area. Gautam said that till now at least 2,500 hectares had been brought under ginger cultivation.

The production recorded this year is a whopping 6,250 metric tonnes. “In addition, the department is also concentrating on promoting cultivation of medicinal plants such as aloe vera, cinnamon, amla, brahmani and arjuna,” he said. Lack of proper marketing facilities is, however, hampering the development of horticulture in the district, Thusi Pulu, another progressive farmer of the district, said. “Pineapple season has crept into the district and the farmers are finding it tough to market their produce and are forced to sell at throw away price,” a farmer regretted. Even as the farmers toil hard to produce fruits, middlemen grab the spoil in the face of absence of a regulatory or support mechanism like fixing of a minimum support price by the government. (PTI)

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