Bishnu Rana

TEZU, Nov 29: Farmers including officials of the Horticulture department are upbeat following the first   harvest of Stevia and Lemon in few pockets of Lohit district which has been introduced as an alternative to opium cultivation.
About 40 hectares of Stevia and Lemon having tremendous commercial value is presently cultivated in the foothills of Lohit –Tezu, Sunpura and Wakro blocks. After three months of farming, farmers are elated after the first harvest has come in.
“Stevia a cash crop with low risk can yield very high returns for five years. It’s called wonder herb and is traditionally accepted medicinal plants for diabetes market. This is the first time the opium growers of Lohit were given Stevia and Lemon as cash crops,” informs S Rehman HDO.
A high level monitoring team from the Department  of Horticulture, Chimpu, Itanagar led by Narang Tani JDH and Daniel Nabum HDO (HQ) made spot visits to all the blocks from November 24-27 last.
“We are delighted to see the way Stevia is thriving in Lohit district with implementation of innovating mulching technology. Unfortunately other parts of the districts are poor in this regard.
The team of Horticulture Lohit has stood beyond our expectation. The way the gardens have been developed, farmers can earn whooping Rs 1,50,000 annually,” says Narang Tani JDH.              
The scheme has been set up under inter-crop during the financial year 2017 – 18 under SADA – Area Expansion Programme on providing alternative livelihood to Opium affected farmers.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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