Shillong, May 5: The Ri Bhoi Strawberry Growers’ Association held a daylong Strawberry Festival on the premises of the U Soso Tham auditorium here today.
Strawberry is usually referred to as the “fruit of love”, and farmers in Meghalaya’s Ri Bhoi district “love” to cultivate this fruit as it brings good returns.
The Ri Bhoi Strawberry Growers’ Association, a 200-member strong organisation, with the support of the Meghalaya horticultural department, has been propagating the benefits of the “fruit of love” to farmers in the district in order to create a sound market for exports.
From Dhaka to Delhi and Calcutta to Guwahati, strawberries from the district have found several customers where the demand ranges from 2-3 tonnes a day.
According to Ostender Lyngkhoi, the association’s general secretary and a farmer who pioneered strawberry cultivation back in 1998, cultivating the “fruit of love” has economically benefited around 500-odd farmers in Ri Bhoi.
“We invest around Rs 3 lakh but the return ranges from Rs 7 to Rs 8 lakh,” said Lyngkhoi from Sohliya village near Umsning in Ri Bhoi, about 40km from here.
He owns a 2-acre strawberry farm at Sohliya where he employs 12 people daily to look after the fruits. “While the sowing season starts in September, the yield can be gathered from January to May,” Lyngkhoi said.
He said till last year, strawberry was exported to Dhaka apart from other cities in the country, including Guwahati where the demand ranges from 2-3 tonnes a day.
Lyngkhoi said the farmers would bring the strawberry yield to the Dewlieh collection centre, about 35km from here, before exporting the product.
Currently, there are arou-nd 500 farmers in Ri Bhoi district cultivating strawberry.
In today’s festival, a total of 200 litres of strawberry wine were sold out within an hour, including strawberry flavour cream.
To cater to the needs of its members, the association last year inaugurated the Prat Lynti English Medium School at Sohliya village. From nursery to Class VII, the school has around 60 students, Lyngkhoi said.
