253 stalls showcase Kachai’s lemon abundance

IMPHAL, Jan 17: Altoge-ther 253 stalls showcasing and selling juicy Kachai lemons were opened in the 5th District Level Kachai Lemon Festival. The two day festival held at Kachai Government High School ground on January 16 and 17 was organised by the Kachai Fruit Farming and Processing Cooperative Society Limited under the sponsorship of Department of Horticulture and Soil Conservation. This year the quantity of lemon produced for the festival was 75 percent higher than the previous year. This is the total quantity of lemons produced by 253 lemon growers.Kachai village is located about 50 kms North West of Ukhrul district Hqs. Here, lemon plants are four to five feet in height from ground. Each lemon plant produce at least four tins of lemon in a season.According to a survey conducted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in 2006, Kachai le- mon is a variety of citrus family. Kachai lemons contain 46 to 51 percent of Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) per milligram. On the average, one fully ripe Kachai lemon weighs up to 101 gm with a circumference in the range about 66-69 mm.Subsequent upon the first Kachai lemon festival held in 2005, the Kachai Fruit Farming and Processing Cooperative Society Limited was also set up. Under the initiative of the So- ciety, Kachai villagers are now growing lemon over an area of 300 hectares. Kachai lemons are usually reaped between Nov- ember and April.Although Kachai lemons remained unknown to most of the people in the past and suffered from lack of marketing facility due to absence of proper transport infrastructure, a new method of buying/selling lemons has evolved in the past one/two years. Kachai lemon marketers buy the whole lemon plants for a season at the plant starts bearing flowers. Moreover, Horticulture Department has also come to the aid of marketing Kachai lemons by buying from the growers in bulk. Because of such new arrangements, lemons lying rotten at the foot of plants has become a thing of the past, said one lemon grower Jet Ningthemla.The festival was opened yesterday by Lok Sabha MP Mani Charenamei as chief guest. In the course of the festival, a team of ICAR scientists visited every stall and checked the quantity, size, content of Vitamin C and juiciness of lemons produced in each stall to identify the most successful lemon growers. Later, Z Ningthemla, VS Ning-tharla and RK Longamphi were adjudged the best three lemon growers. They were also awarded prizes.Tracing the origin of Kachai lemon, it is said that one late S Paisho brought and planted three lemon seeds at Theikhor and another two at Shimphungrim of Kachai in 1944-45. Of these, two grew up at Theikhor and one at Shim-phungrim and these plants became fully matured in 1950. By and by, the same variety of lemon spread to every household of Kachai. This variety of lemon came to be known as Kachai lemon after one S Bhoumik who was then an Advisor in the Agriculture Department named it in the same nomenclature. On the concluding day of the festival, an awareness programme on fruit processing and self entrepreneurship was organised under the joint sponsorship of Department of Commerce and Industry and State Institute of Rural Development.