Jowai, Oct 9: The office of the District Horticulture Officer, East Jaintia Hills District in co-ordination with the Quinquennial Review Team (QRT) of Central Citrus Research Institute (CCRI) on Monday conducted an inspection of Narwan Village Orchards, Narwan, East Jaintia Hills District to assess the cause of fruit drop experienced by farmers.
The QRT delegation comprised of Vice-Chancellor of Horticulture and Forestry University, Nauni, Solan, Professor R S Chandel, Former Assistant Director General (Horticulture Science), ICAR, New Delhi, Dr WS Dhillon, Former Director, ICAR-NRC on Pomegranate, Solapur, Dr RK Pal, Former Dean and Director of Research, BCKV, West Bengal, Dr SK Mitra, Former ADG (Plant Pathology) and Former Member ASRB, ICAR, New Delhi, Dr PK Chakraborty, Ex-Head, Soil Science, ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru, Dr A N Ganeshmurthy and scientists including Dr. AK Das and Dr. DM .Kadam, ICAR-CCRI, Nagpur, Dr H Rymbai, ICAR-RCNEH, Umiam and Dr. ES Marboh, ICAR-CCRI, RRCC, Biswanath Chariali, Assam.
Also present during the inspection were District Horticulture Officer, East Jaintia Hills District D. B. Dhar, Assistant Director of Horticulture EJHD S R. Mulieh and Horticulture Development Officers, Smt. B Rymbai and N Shylla, Traditional Heads and Farmers of Narwan area.
During the interaction, DHO, Dhar expressed his gratitude to all the QRT members of CCRI while also informing them about the concerns in regards to fruit drop of Khasi Mandarin oranges of Narwan Village and also highlighted the motive of the joint inspection.
Dhar also informed the QRT members that Narwan’s Khasi Mandarin farmers are looking forward to QRT members to offer much needed solutions to the problem of fruit drop experienced by them presently. He also encouraged the farming community of Khasi Mandarin to plant local saplings which are available at subsidised rate from the Government Horticulture Farm situated at Mynkre Village, East Jaintia Hills, Khliehriat so as to minimize the spread of pest and diseases infestations and get true to type quality planting materials.
Professor Chandel while interacting with Narwan’s Khasi Mandarin farmers said that the Quinquennial Review Team is determined to find the root cause of the fruit drop. The role of imbalanced nutrition as one of the major causes of fruit drop was pointed out. As Chairman of the Advisory Committee, Dr. Chandel also emphasized on the ways and means which farmers can practice and to follow the calendar of operations laid down by the Directorate of Horticulture, Government of Meghalaya, in order to maximize production of good quality fruits.
Further he also encourages the farmers to plant local saplings and initiate nursery production of healthy planting materials as plant growth performance in the village is very satisfactory with no or very low pest and disease pressure.
Overall, the inspection served as a platform to assess the current situation of Khasi Mandarin in the Narwan area and to discuss strategies, initiatives and measures to enhance quality production.