Horticulture meet on the cards

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Jan. 23: The state department of horticulture, the Kolkata-based Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), and the Malda Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce will soon jointly hold an exporters’ and mango & litchi growers’ meet in Malda and Murshidabad.

The objective of this interactive session, tentatively slated for 4 and 5 February, is not only to promote export but also to retain growers’ interest in producing quality fruits for export, national and international.

It may be noted that initially nearly 500 farmers had expressed interest and were enlisted to produce quality mangoes in Malda under the guidance of the district horticulture department, using bio fertilizers and pesticides. At present, however, the number of enlisted farmers has been reduced to 300.

“Many farmers are not keen to produce quality mangoes here following the guidelines of our department ~ which is comparatively costly as biofertilizers and pesticides are used ~ due to lack of exporters’ demand and proper markets,” said Mr SN Khara, mango development officer in Malda.

“In the last few years, some farmers have incurred losses after investing money for producing quality fruits because they did not find exporters for procuring their produce with adequate remuneration. Hence, they abandoned the method of using expensive materials to produce fruits due to the absence of a permanent contract between the local growers and exporters,” Mr Khara added.

To ensure proper marketing of quality fruits through exporters and procurement of produce from the selected farmers, the director of the state horticulture department has planned to organise an interaction between the local growers and exporters with the help of APEDA in two districts.

According to the district horticulture department, the state officials want exporters to finalise selection of mango orchards during flowering and make a contract of payment to relieve the growers.

In Malda, according to Mr Khara, the present climate is not in favour for proper flowering of mangoes due to cold wave, cloudy weather and fog.

With just seven days to go for Saraswati Puja, no flower, traditionally required for offering prayers, has appeared on mango trees due to the poor climate.