Darjeeling: The Centre of Floriculture and Agri-Business Management (Cofam), under North Bengal University (NBU), is set to provide refined orange saplings to support Darjeeling hills farmers. These seedlings have been developed using modern techniques. They have the disease resistance and higher survival quality rate. The saplings will begin bearing fruit within three years, and the expectation is to have a bumper production.
Some saplings will also be planted on vacant plots in tea gardens. “We are in talks with the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) to implement this initiative. Our goal is to help farmers struggling with declining orange orchards and lower productivity,” Amarendra Kumar Pandey, the practical demonstrator of Cofam.
Over the past decade, the orange farms in Darjeeling have been badly hit owing to pest attacks and poor infrastructure. As per the recent records, the annual production has dipped from 52 metric tonnes to just 29 metric tonnes in the last few years. Therefore, some of the farmers gave up orange farming due to poor production.
At present, orange farming is taking place on 4,150 hectares in the hills. Cofam has decided to distribute grafted seedlings to several significant orange-growing regions like Mirik, Kurseong, Bunkulung, and Tode. Cofam’s aim is to revive citrus fruit farming in the region, providing training and infrastructure so that production and farmers’ incomes can be boosted.
With these efforts, experts believe that orange cultivation will revive in Darjeeling, bringing more profits and prosperity to local farmers.
