The plight of Naga farmers

Two ladies from Thanamir village in Kiphire district were seen selling the famed Thanamir apples in Mokokchung’s New Market on Monday. Thanamir, dubbed the ‘Apple Village’ of Nagaland, is located more than 250 kms from Mokokchung. For the uninitiated, the Government of Nagaland through the Horticulture Department has since 2012 been organizing the Thanamir Apple Festival. Located at the foothills of Mount Saramati, the highest mountain peak in Nagaland, the geo-climatic conditions of Thanamir are ideal for growing apples. The government has been encouraging the villagers to cultivate apples over the years. ‘Thanamir apple’ attracted, and still does, a lot of media hype. Both state, regional and national media houses carried stories about Thanamir Apple Village. Besides producing huge quantities of apples, Thanamir reaped the benefit of the tourism boom. Thanamir village may be located in the most far-flung region of the state, bordering Myanmar, but it found its rightful place as one of the most visible and recognizable villages in Nagaland. All thanks to the hardworking villagers. There is so much that the rest of the Naga people can learn from Thanamir village.

The two ladies selling fresh apples from Thanamir village in Mokokchung said that the pick-up truck on which they brought the apples were hired from Pungro town. They were seen segregating the bad apples and wiping the fruits with clothes. They brought about 1000 kgs of apples, loaded on the pick-up truck, with no crates. They also said that others from their village have taken the apples to Kohima and Dimapur too. They came to Mokokchung because the market in Kohima and Dimapur have been saturated with their apples. Owing to the long journey and bad road conditions, about a quarter of the apples were damaged. Owing to lack of publicity and selling in an unfamiliar market, most people were not aware that Thanamir apples were available in Mokokchung. They said that they would return on Tuesday and halt in Tuensang where they expect to sell off the remaining apples they could not sell in Mokokchung. Judging by the way their business was undertaken, it was apparent that their profits would not be worth their effort.

All of these factors pricks one’s conscience. This episode proves that hard work alone is not enough. Our farmers need right market linkage, post-harvest management technology, value addition, crop insurance, freight incentives and all the ‘technical’ support that any expert can give. There are trained experts in the government who know what needs to be done, the interventions that the farmers need; yet, the farmers are struggling. If a village like Thanamir that is recognized as the apple village of Nagaland and is supported by the government still faces the problem of marketing their produce, imagine the plight of the farmers of the other ordinary villages. The government encourages the farmers to cultivate, the farmers listen and toil, they produce in good volume, and then face difficulty in reaping their fruits of labor at the end. That is so wrong. There really is something amiss. Who will fix that?