The people of Lower Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh,who took to growing oranges in a big way following the introduction of horticulture technology mission in 2000,do not yet fetch good prices for their bounty. Reason: the fruit which is 100 per cent organic slips into the hands of middlemen in the stage of flowering itself. Around 500 tribals,mostly educated youths from the district,are into orange cultivation,with the district slowly emerging as the fruit bowl of the frontier state. Oranges today cover a little more than 2,000 hectares of land spread over the 3,900 sq km district. With favourable climatic conditions,coupled with an enterprising zeal among the educated youth,we are looking at calling Lower Dibang Valley an Orange Valley in the future, said district horticulture officer S K S Gautam. While the people traditionally grew oranges in their homesteads,the horticulture technology mission,coupled with a state mission,not only brought in new varieties of orange plants but also the knowhow on how to produce better and more oranges. However,middlemen coming from Tinsukia,the main commercial hub in eastern Assam,not only pay money and book the orchards as early as when flowering takes place but also harvest the fruits themselves. But when it comes to prices,there is a huge difference between what we get from the middlemen and what the fruit fetches even in the wholesale market in Tinsukia, said a farmer who wished to remain anonymous. District horticulture officer Gautam,too,admits that the farmers are not getting the right prices. The farmers have been pressing the government to do something. A cold storage facility is also absent because there is a severe power shortage in the district. Middlemen are,therefore,taking full advantage, he said. We have proposed establishment of a cold storage facility apart from creating our own marketing infrastructure. We hope to see things moving in a couple of years, said horticulture development officer R Sora. Officials from the North-Eastern Regional Argricultural Marketing Corporation (NERAMAC) have also visited the district,but nothing has happened as yet. Local MLA Laeta Umbrey said: It is the governments duty to provide them proper market linkages. But we dont see anything happening. I fear the farmers will get demotivated. Moreover,a number of illegal checkgates that collect huge sums of money from vehicles moving out of the hill state are also a problem. Vehicles going out with goods from Arunachal Pradesh are subjected to heavy extortion in these checkgates on the Assam side,and orange-laden trucks are no exception, Umbrey said. While horticulture technology mission was introduced in the district way back in 2000,the fruits could be reaped,literally,only in the past three or four years,with oranges from remote villages in the eastern Himalayas even finding their way to the international market. While the department,upon launching horticulture technology mission,focused on several fruits like orange,pear,jackfruit,banana,pineapple,peach,kiwi and plum,the new generation of Idu-Mishmis,Galos and Adis tribes showed more interest in oranges. Oranges were anyway being grown traditionally. Thus,when the mission-mode support came in,the people could see the difference, Gautam said. Many people,like Pasu Pulu,Thusi Pulu,Dature Miuli and Miranda Miuli,are now proud owners of sprawling orange orchards and have been earning much more from the same hillslopes than their parents did by primarily growing only maize. Oranges grown in even a small garden give good returns. I have been gradually increasing the area of cultivation of the fruit, says Dature Miuli,who owns about 13,500 orange plants. Miuli has also planted oranges as shade trees in his small tea garden. While about 700 persons have been trained under the horticulture technology mission in the district,about 500 of them are as of now growing oranges and other fruits commercially. The district had in the last season produced about 800 metric tonnes of oranges. The state horticulture department has set up a citrus nursery at Balek,about 10 km from Roing,the district headquarters,which imparts technical knowhow besides generating interest in the local population. The Krishi Vikash Kendra at Roing, too,provides technical support.
