First batch of this year’s Thanamir apples now available
Morung Express News
Dimapur | August 19
Coming across vendors selling apples grown in Nagaland is a rare sight. However, such encounters have been made possible in recent times with the emergence of Thanamir as a premier apple producing village in Nagaland.
This year’s first batch of the apple harvest from Thanamir is now being sold in and around Dimapur. The marketing, an initiative of the Divine Prayer Counseling & Healing Ministry (DPCHM), was undertaken to encourage the cultivators.
Shielded under the mighty Mount Saramati, Thanamir is a Yimchunger Naga village in Pungro Sub-Division, and located near the Indo-Myanmar border in Kiphire District. People here have been growing apples in their backyards since the early eighties.
While different versions exist, the history of apples in the village dates back to the early 1980s, when a Nepali soldier in the Assam Rifles posted in the area gifted three apple plants to J Youngphukhiung, a GB, and a village guard as a gesture of friendship in a gift exchange. He later planted the same and later learnt the art of grafting and distributed grafts to fellow villagers.
The cultivation of the apple —“Saramati”— named after Mt Saramati, the highest peak in Nagaland thus started to spread to other people and nearby villages. Grafting is done in June-July and the new graft plants start to bear fruit in two years. Flowering takes place in March-April and the harvesting in August and September.
A state government report said that the village council of Thanamir also resolved to make it mandatory that every household should have 1000 apple trees by 2014. The Department of Horticulture also gives technical & financial support to encourage its cultivation.
However, the introduction of the “Saramati Apple” to outside world is attributed to tireless efforts of the Nagaland Missions Movement (NMM) missionary based at Pungro Town, Tangit Longkumer, which later germinated into the first edition of the ‘Apple Festival’ organized at Thanamir village on 2010.
The festival is now an annual fixture.
The apples from Thanamir are purely organic with several health benefits. This is the first batch of the season and the yield for this year is good, DPCHM Executive Chairman, V Duolo informed The Morung Express.
He along with other members of the ministry and volunteers were selling the local variety of apples by assisting the local producers and spreading word about the apples. Duolo also informed that for past two days, they have been selling the apples in and around Dimapur and will continue until Saturday.
Another batch of 400 kilos was also sent for sale to Kohima on Friday and Saturday. “So far we sold in weekly markets in 4th and 6th-mile bazaar and plan to open a stall in Chumukedima Bazaar on Saturday,” he added.
In main town area of Dimapur, the apples were seen driven around in a pick-up truck and sold at the rate of Rs. 150 per kilo.
The sales were not encouraging as by afternoon only around 20-30 kilos were sold. Duolo attributed the relatively modest sale to lack of familiarity with the product. When asked whether the price was too high, he said given the transportation and other cost involved, the price was reasonable.
Despite declaring the village as “vegetable village” by the Government of Nagaland in 2013 for its rich agriculture potential and biodiversity, lack of alternative marketing facilities either through the government or other avenues has proven to be an obstacle.
The sale of this year’s first apple batch will continue on August 19 in Dimapur and Kohima. People can contact 8014770034 for further information.
