SHILLONG, Sep 13: Areca nut farmers under Mawsynram constituency were asked by the Horticulture department officials to shift their mode of farming and take up banana and pineapple plantations, according to local MLA from Trinamoool Congress (TMC) Himalaya M Shangpliang.
The MLA lambasted the officials of the department for allegedly doing so.
Moving a call attention motion on the third day of the autumn session, Shangpliang said that the personnel of the East Khasi Hills Horticulture department had organised an awareness camp for the areca nut farmers in May this year.
According to the MLA, the farmers attending the camp expected the Horticulture department officials to provide them the expertise and inputs on protecting their areca nut plantations from various diseases.
“But surprisingly these farmers were rather asked to shift their mode of farming to banana and pineapple plantations. How can you ask somebody who is already in the trade of areca nut for years to shift to bananas and pineapples,” Shangpliang said.
The government officials, he stated, tried to divert the mind of the farmers instead of providing them with inputs and medicines to tackle the diseases.
He recalled another incident, wherein officials from the district Horticulture office, Basin Development, Science and Technology department, and a drone company from Andhra Pradesh had in July this year visited a village called Raid Umsaw which has a sizeable areca nut plantation.
“Like fooling the people of my area, the company from Andhra Pradesh flew a drone over all areca nut plantation trees. They tried to spray certain medicines over the head of the areca nut trees. They told the farmers that they will come back.
The drone could not be seen after July 6. It is becoming like a joke,” he said.
On this, Shangpliang asked the Agriculture minister to confirm if the drone was genuine.
Informing the House that areca nut is grown in about 41 villages under Mawsynram along the border and a little over 1000 hectares of land is covered by areca nut cultivation, the Mawsynram MLA said high incidence of insect pests and diseases is a major problem faced by the areca nut farmers, due to which the yield of areca nut has declined in the last few years. “The farmers are losing about 20% of the plants every year,” the TMC MLA said, while prodding the government to look into their grievances and not push for change of plantation.
In response to the issues raised by the MLA, Agriculture Minister Banteidor Lyngdoh said the department has taken several steps to compensate the loss to areca nut farmers through alternative planting material and innovative solutions to mitigate the effect of the bud rot disease.
After due consideration, the department had finally agreed that spraying a mixture on the trees using drones could be the best possible option to curb the problem.
“With these the department has started the first-ever pilot initiative of spraying bordeaux mixture on areca nut plantation in Meghalaya to understand the feasibility and efficacy of it,” the minister said.
He informed that the pilot initiative was conducted in Umsawrang village under Mawsynram block, and Ronsingre in Chokpot Block under South Garo Hills district.
“While in the pilot phase, the drones were hired from Andhra Pradesh with assistance from in-house pilots under Meghalaya Basin Management Agency (MBMA), the government is now in the process of procuring better, high capacity drones which can spray more areas in lesser time as compared to the drones used in the pilot phase,” Lyngdoh said.
The Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare under the Fruit Development Scheme has sanctioned Rs 6.27 crore for distribution of free planting material as an immediate relief for areas affected under areca nut plantation for the year 2022-23, according to the minister.
