By Eric Calvin Ranee
UMSNING: People of the State on Saturday celebrated Valentine’s Day with Northeast’s wonder fruit-strawberry, at the picturesque village of Sohliya about 26 kilometres away from the state capital, Shillong.
On the occasion of Valentine’s Day, the District Horticulture Office, Ri Bhoi district organised the strawberry festival at the Sohliya farm as strawberry lovers thronged the venue to enjoy their day out relishing the fruit and its products.
Visitors thronged the stalls set up at the venue purchasing freshly packed strawberry and local made strawberry wine. In fact, be it a bottle of strawberry wine or a pack of the fruit itself, everyone who visited the venue had something or the other to carry back with.
Earlier, while inaugurating the festival, local legislator Celestine Lyngdoh lauded the department for hosting the event which will encourage local strawberry farmers and infuse zeal in them to toil harder to increase the production of the fruit in the district and the State as a whole.
He also observed that festivals like these will also attract tourists to Sohliya or strawberry village which has a lot more to offer to the visitors.
Meanwhile, Ri Bhoi district horticulture officer AV Lyngdoh said, “It is the endeavor of the department to boost the cultivation of strawberry in Sohliya as the area is fertile and suitable for cultivation of the fruit which has created employment avenues for the locals.”
She also informed that there is big demand of the fruit in the world market and the department is continuously encouraging the local people to grow strawberry which has a ready market available.
However, a group of farmers were disappointed with the way the festival was organised. They felt that the festival this year was not up to the mark when compared to the one organised years ago. They also urged the government to pay more attention to the cultivation of the fruit and support the farmers in the same.
It may be mentioned that the fruit was first brought to the village by the local Rangbah Shnong O Lyngkhoi more than a decade ago. He experimented by growing a handful of strawberry plants in the village and that experiment turned out to be a grand success. Currently the strawberry cultivation spreads over seven acres of land in the village.