Areca nut squeezes out orange from farms

TANMOY CHAKRABORTY, TT, 19 August 2019,  Agartala: Orange growers in Jampui hills in Tripura's North district are switching over to cash crops like areca nut.

Earlier, over 1,000 hectares of the hills, around 210km from here, was covered with orange plants even till the late eighties. The quality of oranges produced in Jampui hills was so good that it won first position at a fruit exhibition in New Delhi in the mid-80s.

However, now the cultivation has come down to less than 100 hectares.

C.L. Mawai, 50, an education department official, said a disease afflicting the orange plants, in which the leaves turn yellow, has affected production.

"Many experts visited Jampui hills to find a solution, including from Nagpur, but nothing happened. After the slump in orange cultivation, the Tripura government sought the intervention of the National Research Centre for Citrus (NRCC) to produce disease-free orange but could not solve the problem," he said.

Worried over the decline in production of orange, the horticulture department invited a team of experts from the NRCC. Kanchanpur sub-division superintendent of horticulture Subrata Shiv said not a single farmer in Jampui now grows orange. He said scien- tists from NRCC came several times to encourage them to produce oranges but they were not interested anymore.

"The disease is called dieback, which is curable. The farmers have to give a little bit effort in the form of protective measures. We assured them all help and support but it did not work out. I am trying to restore cultivation of oranges. We are losing the pride of Tripura. From Nagpur, a team came and said the disease was curable. They just have to give a little time to the plants. They didn't even use fertilisers in a proper way to save the orange plants because they found profit by cultivating areca nutHe also said the govern- ment was trying hard to revive orange cultivation in Jampui hills.

Farmer Sarajit Reang, 48, told this correspondent that the pest started attacking orange trees and they faced a severe production crisis and lost the market. "It's been a year we have shifted to areca nuts. After decline in production, many scientists came here to find out about the disease affecting the orange trees, but six to seven years have passed without any solution. Earlier, we had to put in a lot of labour and hard work in maintaining the orange plants but now we are cultivating areca nut, which gives better profit with less effort," he told The Telegraph. S. Molsom, 36, said they re- ceived good profit after shifting from orange to areca nut.

"We tried to sell our oranges in other markets but could not because the quality was not the same as earlier. Then we started losing our markets. So, we shifted to areca nut. Now, we earn up to Rs 30 to 40 lakh annually by cultivating areca nuts. The number of farmers growing oranges has come down drastically," she said.

Around 400 families are now cultivating areca nuts over 600 hectares and earning Rs 1.5 lakh per hectare. The nuts are usually exported to Mizoram and other states.