India: ‘NE has great scope for cashew plantation’

The two-day training of trainers on Cashew cultivation and processing, organised by the Central Institute of (Sitting, centre) Rongsentemjen, Director of Horticulture, along with officials of the state horticulture department, officials of CIH, resource persons and farmers at the NRC (Mithun) complex in Jharnapani, Dimapur, on Thursday, February 19. (Morung Photo)

Horticulture (CIH), Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, GoI, Medziphema, got underway today here at the conference hall of the NRC (Mithun), Jharnapani.

Speaking as the chief guest, Director of horticulture, Rongsentemjen said there was great scope to expand areas under cashew in northeastern hilly region, and continued that cashew can organically be grown in this region which can fetch a higher price in the international market. “Since cashew harvesting period overlaps with the onset of rainy season in NEH region, development of suitable nut driers has to be found out to solve the problem of drying of the raw nuts,” he maintained.
Stating that Nagaland and the northeast as a whole has been gifted with unique topography and varied agro-climatic conditions that offer vast resources and scope for the development of horticultural crops, the Director pointed out that the potentialities of these features in the region were yet to be tapped fully.
Referring to the contribution of the northeastern region that was only 10,000 tons in production and that productivity was 640kg per hectare, Rongsentemjen said that the present area under cashew plantation crops in Nagaland was around 1200 hectares, mostly confined to the Chümukedima area of Dimapur, Jalukie area of Peren, Naganimora and Tizit areas of Mon, and Tsürangkong and Yajang areas of Mokokchung.

He also asserted that the region lacked infrastructure facilities, communications and marketing networks and lack of awareness of technical know-how about the importance of horticultural crops. He added that the people of the region had yearned for long for the required support, to enable them to exploit the natural potentials of the region for extensive horticulture and allied activities. However, he continued, physical and financial resources and politico-demographic constraints had handicapped their efforts to exploit the natural potentials of the region.
Subsequently, the Director said the need of the hour for all was to sensitise production patterns to changing conditions of demands. Talking about the training, he said such training of trainers should be a regular feature to enhance production and to encourage the efforts of the growers of the region.

Earlier, the programme was chaired by Professor V B Singh, head of department, Horticulture SASRD, NU, while the welcome address was proposed by Tiakum, technical consultant, CIH, and vote of thanks was tendered by Ethel Ngullie, technical consultant, CIH. The resource persons for the two days’ training were Dr. PC Lenka, Associate Director of Research, and Dr. RN Mohapatra, Associate Professor of Horticulture from the Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology, Bhubaneswar. The training was attended by officials of the state horticulture department and farmers.


Source: morungexpress.com

Publication date: 2/20/2009