A strawberry field in Sohliya. Telegraph picture

Guwahati, Aug. 22: The rising mercury levels at Sohliya in Ri Bhoi district of Meghalaya this summer have prompted the Ri Bhoi Strawberry Growers Association to contemplate shifting its nursery to the cooler climate of Kynshi in West Khasi Hills.

A temperature between 15 and 22 degrees Celsius is ideal for strawberry cultivation. Kynshi, about 100km southwest of Sohliya, has an average temperature of 20 degrees Celsius in a year.

“Temperatures this year have crossed the 30 degrees mark at Sohliya, as a result of which we have had problems in germinating the seeds in our nursery. A majority of the mother plants imported mainly from California were damaged by the heat this summer. So we are shifting the nursery to a plot measuring an acre at Kynshi by May,” Ostander Lyngkhoi, general secretary of the association, told The Telegraph.

The planting season is between September and November while the fruits begin to grow from December. Meghalaya is one of the largest producers of strawberries in the country. Three years back, a hi-tech nursery was set up in the village with support from the ministry of panchayati raj in a bid to provide seedlings to the farmers during the plantation season. Before the nursery, the seedlings had to be imported from California, Holland and Turkey. “I have prepared a project for approval from the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE), Guwahati in this regard. The proposal will be submitted in the next couple of months,” Lyngkhoi said.

Sohliya, which is around 85km southeast from here and 46km northeast of Shillong, has been producing strawberries over nearly two decades now.

The IIE had identified the area as a potential location for the rural business hub project of the panchayati raj ministry. “We are aware of the nursery shifting plan and have told the association to give us a proposal in writing. The hi-tech nursery at Sohliya involved a cost of over Rs 12 lakh. Shifting it to Kynshi is likely to cost a lot more,” Hemanta Rabha of IIE told this correspondent. Lyngkhoi has brought the farmers together into an association that carries out post-harvest grading and marketing operations. “The strawberries are graded according to their size and categorised into segments. The farm price varies between Rs 200 and Rs 120 per kg. The market price would be almost double,” he said.

The association, which imports about 15,000 mother plants annually, is, however, finding it hard to meet the demand for seedlings. This season, only about 60 tonnes of strawberry were produced in the village because of the high temperatures, as against an average production of 250 to 300 tonnes.

“Currently, we have 234 farmers buying them at Rs 12.50 per seedling. The annual requirement for each farmer is 2,500 seedlings, which totals about 5.85 lakh seedlings. However, we produced only about 30,000 last season because of the heat. But once the nursery is shifted to Kynshi, we expect a minimal loss of plants and more output,” Lyngkhoi said.

The cost of a mother plant has gone up to Rs 47. “Six to eight seedlings on an average are produced from a plant,” he added.

As additional income generating options, the IIE has encouraged the farmers to produce strawberry wine, jam, jelly and squash.

“We produce about 4,000 bottles of strawberry wine every year and sell them in Meghalaya, Nagaland, Assam and Siliguri,” Lyngkhoi said. “Strawberry cultivation has changed the lives of the farmers, who are earning Rs 80,000 to Rs 1lakh per season,” he added.