Organic produce worth ₹100 crore damaged due to Manipur crisis: Official

IMPHAL: Organic produce worth more than ₹100 crores has been damaged and lost in Manipur due to the ongoing unrest that started in early May, people aware of the matter said.

“The ongoing situation in the state has severely hit the production of organic produce and its subsequent marketing processes,” Dr K Devdutta Sharma, project director of Manipur Organic Mission Agency (MOMA). MOMA operates under the state’s horticulture department to promote organic farming in the state and seeks to expand chemical-free organic zones in Manipur.

The most affected state’s organic produce of the season includes pineapple (both kew and queen), ginger, turmeric and king chillies.

“We actually export at least 1 to 2 metric tonnes (MT) of organic pineapple on a daily basis to the tune of 300 to 400 MT annually in the last few years. Similarly, we sold 200 MT of organic ginger and 400 MT of organic turmeric every year. But we couldn’t make it in this peak season,” Devdutta said.

With a production of 134.82 MT in 2020-21, Manipur ranks sixth in pineapple production and has a 7.5% share in the country’s total production. The top ten importing countries of Indian pineapples are UAE, Nepal, Qatar, Maldives, USA, Bhutan, Belgium, Iran, Bahrain and Oman.

“We’ve a plan to export dry organic ginger outside the state by procuring from the registered farmers of Pherzawl district etc. But we cannot do it now,” the senior horticulture department official lamented.

The state agriculture department, horticulture and veterinary and animal husbandry departments, research institutes including Central Agricultural University and ICAR Manipur centre, actively support organic farming communities. Currently, 37,500 hectares of cultivable area under the MOMA is under organic farming.

Organic products worth ₹200 crores have been sold in the last six years. Of this, products worth ₹30 crore were sold outside the state and products worth ₹1.5 crore were exported.