Farmers` beauty

Two incidents which struck our mind on Monday was the effort of a farmers’ body to wet the dry fields in Imphal West and the lament of pineapple farmers in the Pineapple festival. This reveals the government apathy and the lack of imagination in dealing with difficult situations. Since the month of July this year, IFP has been trying hard to draw the attention of the state government on the drought like situation in many areas of the state due to delayed monsoon rains. But the government is delaying a definite decision on drought despite several cabinet meetings in the last two months, and whatever decisions they took were either not implemented at all or selectively implemented.

The subsidy on Urea fertilizer as well as the distribution of pump sets or for that matter short term high yielding seed varieties benefitted only a few farmers that too only those favoured by the ministers and ruling MLAs. The cabinet had approved an action plan to supplement irrigation facilities in the state through distribution of 400 numbers of pump sets to farmer societies in rain deficient areas. The cabinet had also approved an action plan to support Rabi crops like Maize, Pea, Mustard, and Wheat and hybrid paddy in approximately 34, 500 acres of area. On the other hand, the revival of the various river lift irrigation schemes as decided by the state cabinet did not materialize. A sum of Rs 50 lakhs were sanctioned by the cabinet for revival and maintenance of various RLI schemes in the state, which again could not be avail of as the state is yet to submit utilization certificates for the previous financial year. As the state government remained unconcerned at the drought situations and the looming threat of famine next season, the farmers are running from pillar to post. A Farmers’ collective in Imphal West came up with the unique idea of pooling in whatever resources they could gather to supply water pumped from different sources and channel it to the drought affected fields in Imphal West district. The Nongchup Imphal Loumee-Sinmee Chaokhat Thourang Lup (NILSCTL) starting from Saturday onwards organized a programme to provide water using water pumps to the fields of Ngairangbam and Maklang in Imphal West district. The plants have reached its stage of ripening but due to lack of rainfall now the farmers are terribly worried whether they would have a crop or a yield. So they have taken the initiative to rent pump sets at the cost of rupees 150 per hour for pumping the water from the Maharani Loukol Pukhri. This initiative is a slap on the face of the state government. On the other hand, the lament of the pineapple farmers at the recent Pineapple festival is significant in the backdrop of government policies with regard to promotion of horticulture activities in the hill areas. We have stated in the past that the yearly ritual of festivals as a way of promoting different horticulture produce is a joke on the farmers. The state has seen its share of festivals supposedly promoting oranges, pineapple, and lemon and as it turned out the festivals are always waylaid by beauty pageants and fashion parades which has nothing to do with the promotion of horticulture produce. There is a genuine need for constructing a chain of cold storage plants and mini processing units in the hill areas. For lack of cold storage and processing plants, the lemon produce of Kachai village in Ukhrul and oranges in Tamenglong and so also pineapple in the Nongmaijing hill range and the ranges of Bishnupr and Churachandpur are rotting on the ground. And so, such festivals are indeed a mockery of the economic potential of the hills of Manipur. Yes, it could play a part in attracting crowds. But, the real promotion lies in creating a support structure for the horticulture farmers.