Aizawl, Feb 3 (NNN): Non availability of markets has been the prime reason for the ginger cultivators in Mizoram to leave the occupation.
A good number of Mizo farmers stop cultivating ginger as the crop does not bring much profit.
Mizoram is the fourth largest producer of ginger in India after Kerala, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.
Meanwhile, officials of the Mizoram Agricultural Marketing Corporation (MAMCO) said the government continues to look for ginger market all over the country and the neighbouring Bangladesh so that the Mizo farmers can export their produces. The source said, the present price of ginger in Bagha and Vairengte (both in Mizoram) is Rs 6 per kg and there are no sufficient buyers at present.
Meanwhile, ginger cultivators in Mizoram rue that if the government take keen interest in cultivating ginger, many Mizos would have been very rich by now. “We heard that ginger cultivators in Kerala and elsewhere are doing brisk business but why cannot we do the same here?” asks Zodin Thangliana, a ginger farm owner.
It can be noted that the crop duration is only one year. The average yield in Mizoram is 8 to 10 times of seeds sown. Had there been a reliable and efficient marketing system for marketing of ginger, many ginger growers in Mizoram would not have remain poor.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/mizoram-ginger-farmers/
