People witnessed 328 stalls and 5 lakh oranges displayed and sold on the opening day of the 16th State Level Orange Festival on 16th December 2019 in lower ground in Tamenglong district headquarters breaking all previous records.
The Best Orange Competition winners received the coveted reward and recognition for an orange grower from honourable Chief Minister of Manipur, Shri N. Biren Singh who was the Chief Guest of the annual festival last year as well. The first prize was won by Tansinang Gangmei who walked away with a cash prize of Rs.2 lakhs, the second and third prize were won by Pouchunlui L.G from Sangrungpang village and Gaisuilui Kamei from Nungba village receiving 1 lakh and 75,000 Rs. respectively. The oranges were judged on three major criteria of size, colour and sweetness by scientists from the Horticulture Department, Imphal.
Tamenglong is also home to Biurianthai or the Wild Orange (Citrus indica), the parent species of the present day Tamenglong Oranges or Tamenglong Mandarin. These oranges are not mere fruits for people of Tamenglong, its their livelihood, pride, identity, family heritage (orange farming has been going on since generations and farming tips passed down from forefathers) and the reason for tourists’ visit to this isolated district, forging friendships across the globe.
It’s been sixteen years of celebrating Orange Festival in Tamenglong and the district may have managed to reach a particular level in its production, addressing the challenge to mitigate plant diseases that had been the cause of massive destruction and decline in orange production in the past 6-7 years to getting a project on food processing plant under the Hill Area Development Program but the main task of providing market linkage and its export, increasing shelf- life of the oranges to ensure optimum income to the farmer and facilitating convergence between different government departments and stakeholders- the Horticulture, Agriculture, Forest, Rural Development, research institutions like Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Central Agriculture University (CAU), even Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR)and media, civil society, agripreneurs across the country, NGOs and financial institutions like National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFi)- all constitute the scope of orange farming in Tamenglong.
NEDFi provides financial assistance to micro, small, medium and large enterprises for setting up industrial, infrastructure and agro-allied projects in the north eastern region of India.
According to Tamenglong District Development Manager of NABARD, Pukhrambam Boicha Meitei the challenge that lies ahead is linking the oranges to the market and ensuring quality production of oranges and developing processed products. NABARD is an apex development bank of the Government of India with a mandate for facilitating credit flow for promotion and development of agriculture, cottage and village industries. NABARD renders help in terms of financing Self Help Groups, encouraging formation and functioning of farmers clubs, giving trainings for group strengthening and sustainability, and skill development trainings for individuals and groups on food processing and packaging.
NABARD sponsors orange growers to participate in state level festivals like Orange Festival and Shirui Lily Festival in Ukhrul through stalls. NABARD supported five such Self- Help Groups in Tamenglong which are into orange farming with Rs.1.5 lakhs grant each but observed development of internal conflict between members of the SHG from third year onwards and negatively affecting regular meetings, monthly contributions and overall functioning of the group.
Winner of last year’s best orange competition, Smt. Gaigupliu from Sibilong village in her experience sharing speech suggested that orange growers be given a place to sell their oranges throughout the season because they have only the Orange Festival as a business avenue as of now and to find a means for exporting Tamenglong Oranges. Due to lack of transportation facility, these oranges are being either sold off in the native village or consumed in the farmer’s household failing to bring economic benefit.
In trying to understand how Tamenglong Oranges can benefit from marketing and linkages to the rest of the country from an isolated district like Tamenglong with bad roads adding to the problem, the Chief Minister of Manipur said, “Special attention will be given to the orange growers of Tamenglong and the Government/Horticulture Department will purchase the oranges from the farmers after local consumption and export it outside of Manipur after value addition.” He also announced an increased cash incentive of Rs.20,000 per orange grower in the next Orange Festival in 2020.
Shri Samuel Jendai, honourable MLA of Tamenglong district pointed out that community participation, departmental pro-activeness of the district and state government and promotion of Tamenglong Oranges by the politicians as well as community champions alone can take Tamenglong Oranges to the next level.