The office of the District Horticulture Officer, East Jaintia Hills District in co-ordination with the Quinquennial Review Team (QRT) of Central Citrus Research Institute (CCRI) today conducted an inspection of Narwan Village Orchards, Narwan, East Jaintia Hills District to assess the cause of fruit drop experienced by farmers.
The QRT delegation comprised of Vice-Chancellor of Horticulture and Forestry University, Nagpur, Dr R.S Chandel, Former Assistant Director General (ADG) Horticulture, Dr W.S. Dhillon, Former Director, ICAR-NRC, Dr R.K Pal, scientists including Dr H. Rymbai, Dr. E.S Marboh, Dr. A.K Das, Dr S.K Milra, Dr P.K Chakraborty, Dr A.N Ganeshmurthy and Dr Darshan Kadam.
Also present during the inspection were Assistant Director of Horticulture, East Jaintia Hills District, Shri S.R. Mulieh, District Horticulture Officer, East Jaintia Hills District, Shri D. B. Dhar, Horticulture Officers, Smt. B. Rymbai and Shri N. Shylla, Traditional Heads and Farmers of Narwan area.
During the interaction, District Horticulture Officer, East Jaintia Hills District, Shri D. B. Dhar expressed his gratitude to all the QRT members of CCRI while also informing them about the concerns in regards to fruit drop of Khasi Mandarin oranges of Narwan Village and also highlighted on the motive of the joint inspection carried out today. Shri Dhar also informed the QRT members that Narwan’s Khasi Mandarin farmers are looking forward to QRT members to offer much needed solutions to the problem of fruit drop experienced by them presently.
Vice-Chancellor of Horticulture and Forestry University, Nagpur, Dr R.S. Chandel while interacting with Narwan’s Khasi Mandarin farmers said that the Quinquennial Review Team is determined to find the root cause of the fruit drop while also highlighting the ways and means which farmers can practice to produce quality fruits and also took the occasion encourage the farmers to plant local saplings besides importing saplings even as he also informed that imbalanced nutrition is one of the major causes of fruit drop.
Overall, the inspection served as a platform to assess the current situation of Khasi Mandarin in Narwan area and to discuss strategies, initiatives and measures to enhance quality production. (DPRO, Khliehriat)