Organic lemon, orange orchard adorns IE
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, December 13 2018:
An orchard of considerable size where orange and lemon are cultivated successfully now adorns Sambei Kangthak, Imphal East district.
Yumnam Dhananjoy of Khurai Puthiba Leikai who retired from Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Department started developing the orchard around seven years back.
After listening to radio talks which say that oranges are cultivable successfully in Tamenglong district and lemon in Ukhrul district only in the State, Dhananjoy started developing the orchard at Sambei Kangthak with a challenge to show to the whole world that orange and lemon can be cultivated using only organic method in the valley too.
Around 250 lemon plants grown in the orchard have started bearing fruits.
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Even though only 20 orange plants survive now out of 100 cultivated in the orchard as pruning could not be done in time, new saplings are being planted.
Dhananjoy said that he is not an expert in organic method of cultivation but chose organic method considering the health hazards caused by use of chemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides.
He said that he makes compost out of decomposed vegetables and cow dungs and use it in his orchard.
He said that he learnt the process of making composts while he was serving at the Veterinary Department.
Dhananjoy claimed that he was quite successful in cultivating papaya using composts before cultivating orange and lemon.
Green Foundation, Manipur chief executive officer U Himmat said that Dhananjoy' s orchard is purely organic but people would not know this when they buy fruits produced from the orchard.
Himmat said that the Green Foundation has initiated due procedures to grant organic certification to Dhananjoy's orchard.
He further informed that Freshies Fresh (www.freshiesfresh.com) has started due preparations to sell lemon and orange produced from the orchard online.
Himmat said that the Green Foundation is a certifying body of organic quality assurance system which is also known as Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) .