Morung Express News
Dimapur | May 15
Several truck loads of cardamom suckers infected with Foorkey affected disease have been sent for supply in North Eastern States (probably Nagaland) as per letters from Spices Board, Kalimpong and Spices Board, Guwahati to State’s horticulture department.
This was stated in an urgent memo sent by Director of Horticulture Nagaland to the Director of Rural Development (RD), Nagaland dated May 12 for the latter’s urgent consideration.
As per the content of the letter, in the possession of The Morung Express, the Horticulture Director informed the RD Director that the Assistant Director, Spices Board, Guwahati has warned of the “possibility of spread of the viral disease beyond control in Nagaland which can cause irreversible damage to large cardamom sector of the State.”
The Assistant Director of Spices Board, Kalimpong has collected some samples from the stock and kept for record,
it said.
Expressing alarm over the development, the Horticulture director asked the RD department to “take immediate remedial steps” to ensure that planting materials are not from Kalimpong or any other disease infected nurseries.
“Steps should be initiated to immediately uproot the plants and destroy by way of burning in every district,” the memo stated, requesting to intimate action taken reports as the matter is “most urgent.”
The letter further pointed out that during several joint meetings of Rural Development and Horticulture Department emphasis was made on procurement of quality planting materials to be obtained from certified “nurseries free from disease.”
