Aizawl, Sep 1 (PTI) The Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) government’s plan to purchase a few agricultural and horticulture produce of farmers has led to growth of plantation area of such crops in the state, an official said.
Sticking to its pre-poll plank, the ZPM government led by Chief Minister Lalduhoma soon after it came to power in December last year, had announced that it will purchase four agricultural or horticultural crops – ginger, turmeric, chilli and broom sticks under its flagship programme ‘Bana Kaih’ or hand holding policy to economically uplift the farmers.
The government also fixed minimum prices for such crops.
According to officials of the state horticulture department, the number of farmers cultivating organic ginger, turmeric and Mizo chilli and the extent of the area where such cultivations are being done has gone up this year as compared to the previous year.
The reason for such growth might have been due to the government’s assurance to arrange markets or buy the four crops and also to provide minimum price support to farmers in the case of failure to sell their produce below the minimum prices fixed by the government, they said.
The department officials said that ginger plantation is now done in 27,608.5 acres of land by 25,102 families in 11 districts and more than 19,000 quintals are expected to be harvested by farmers this year.
The officials said that turmeric cultivation also spread to over 4,281 acres of land in the state and is being cultivated by 3,415 families.
The state is expected to harvest more than 81,000 quintals of turmeric at the end of this year, they said.
With 892 families planting turmeric plants in over 1,600 acres of land, south Mizoram’s Lunglei district topped in turmeric cultivation, followed by Aizawl district and Kolasib district.
Over 8,600 families are currently cultivating Mizo chilli in over 11,800 acres of land across all the 11 districts, officials said.
The cultivation is expected to yield over 37,000 quintals of chilli by the end of the year, they said.
Aizawl district has the highest number of farmers (1,138 families) doing chilli plantation on 1,218 acres of land, followed by Serchhip district, which has 1,026 families doing such plantation on 1,258.5 acres of land, officials said. PTI COR RG
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