Good for Aliba

The first Cucumber Festival of Aliba village is a brilliant initiative and credit must be given to ATMA Mokokchung, the organizers, the villagers and the cucumber farmers for organizing the two-day event. This festival will boost the spirit of not only the farmers but all the villagers as a whole.

In fact, this cucumber festival should have been held years ago as it has been well known that Aliba village was the biggest producer of cucumbers in Mokokchung, and probably in Nagaland. The fact that the cucumber has been officially certified by India’s Registrar of Geographical Indications (GI) as an agricultural good unique to Nagaland is another reason why the cucumber festival must be promoted even more.

The Director of Agriculture and SNO ATMA, Nagaland is not wrong when he says that the Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) of the cucumber farmers of Aliba village needs to be shared with farmers in other parts of the state. As assured by the director, it is hoped that the department will assist interested farming communities in this regard.

The only concern here is that cucumbers, being an agricultural produce, are highly perishable and they can go bad if not sold as soon as possible after harvesting. Without a proper and assured market or post-harvest management system in place, encouraging mass production of cucumbers can be tricky.

However, that does not mean that it should not be encouraged but that proper planning should be done before cultivation and production on a commercial scale begins. The uniqueness of the locally grown cucumbers are known and documented; Naga cucumbers are low in calories but high in potassium. As noted by the Registrar of Geographical Indications, Naga cucumbers have a high level of water content and the added bonus of naturally occurring nutrients and trace minerals.

This broadens the scope for mass production of cucumber as there is ample room for processing and value addition. It may also be suggested that other cucumber cultivars grown in other villages or districts may be experimented with, employing the shared ITK.

Coming back to the village, Aliba is regarded as one of the cleanest villages in Mokokchung and that in itself is a reflection of the character and outlook of the villagers in general. Even though it is relatively a smaller village, Aliba also has the biggest log-drum in the state and is located not too far from the district headquarters which offers a number of logistical advantages.

The village is also blessed with large tracts of fertile flatlands with adequate water sources, making it possible for large-scale agricultural activities. These are some factors which when harnessed can give the village a niche to function as its unique selling point and Aliba village can become an agri-tourism hotspot.

Mokokchung Times