Training on management of litchi orchard held in Socünoma

DIMAPUR — All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on fruits of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), Medziphema centre, under the Horticulture department of Nagaland University conducted a training on ‘Management of newly established litchi orchards” for the farmers of Socünoma village in Chümoukedima district on October 14.

The programme was aimed at training the selected farmers about the importance to follow the calendar of operations for adopting various intercultural operations and plant protection measures at appropriate timeline, thereby to improve the quality and productivity of the fruits. The training was a follow-up of the previous training which was held in May 2023 wherein litchi saplings were distributed to each of the attendee to develop litchi orchards.

An update from the department stated that the programme was chaired by Aroro Ngullie, enumerator-cum-field assistant of AICRP on Fruits, who also welcomed the farmers and apprised on the importance of litchi and its scope to improve livelihood.

The resource person, Dr. Sentirenla Jamir, who is an assistant professor of Horticulture at SAS: NU, shared tips on the soil and plant management of the newly established litchi plantations. She also emphasised on the role of canopy management and techniques that could be adopted for tree shape maintenance in the initial 1-3 years of plant growth with supporting videos and demonstrations.

It stated that the various intercultural operations like mulching, girdling, bagging and plant protection measures for old trees and orchards were also discussed. It was followed with an interactive session between the farmers and AICRP  technical staff.

The project-in-charge, Prof. CS Maiti, invited progressive farmers to voluntarily donate land for establishment of demonstration plots, which would be incorporated with advanced technologies from planting to harvesting of litchi crops.

Also read: STRY programme trains Mokokchung youth in mushroom farming