The role of Horticulture in Tamenglong District
A survey account of ten villages in Tamenglong District, Manipur

Philip Kamei *

Thick vegetation in Tamei, Tamenglong :: Pix Credit - MMTA

Profile of the survey villages in Tamenglong District:

The ten villages that had been survey during September to December 2012 In Tamenglong District in Manipur State Viz. Tajeikaiphun, Puiloun, longjang, Chiuluon, Farmland, Dailong, Piuleklong, Phallong, Namtiram and Siguilong. The total geographically areas of the survey villages are found to be 1029 sq.km approx. Interview to village chief or secretary were done to collect detailed information of villages and households information were collected through the head of every households. The study reveals that some villages are very old more than 2000 years of its village establishment and horticultural crops are grown at courtyard or backyard normally grown with fruits and vegetables crops since their fore­father days and were carried on till today.

Every village has well defined demarcated boundary of its own. Some villages were found to locate at a very remote distance from district headquarter and sub-divisional headquarter. This in fact has become a major problem in distribution of horticultural products for sale outside. For instance one village is located at 300 km away from subdivision headquarter. In all the villages' unexploited forest are still available. The area of the minor forest and major forest are 612sq.km, and 57sq.km, respectively. Mature forests have been reducing at a faster pace in the present days as compare to the past. So much concerted effort from government and public is the need of the hour.

Transportation

These villages have steep and terrain with hilly mountains, having few pocket of valley between hill ranges. Most of the villages have unpaved way. People mostly transported agricultural and agricultural goods by human being ,on foot. They moved around village in foot only. There were no motor able road and no bus and sumo counter were found. The inter-villages and intra-village roads is at a rudimentary stages. This proves to be major hurdles for marketing of their horticultural produce. Therefore, total failure of road infrastructure all around an all the rural places of the state.

Demography and communication

The total numbers of household in all survey villages were found to be 1191. All together the population is 10730, where males are 5570 and females are 5260. The male population is larger than the females' counterpart. These prove to be a boon for agricultural and horticultural activities. Children and Old age people are found to be 5380 and 2870 respectively. In the areas of communication; Communication facilities are a distance dream for many of the populace, few villages have proper Government post office and is the only vital mode of communication available. Out of ten villages, 6 villages were found having telephone landline connection and 4 villages were not. All the villages do not have access to Internet facility. But, cell phones are in used in all villages but network are accessible only at some places.

Identification of economic infrastructure

There have been no major and minor economic infrastructures in all the survey villages. There were none existence of bank and banking facilities in all villages. Four villages were found having local markets and 6 villages does not have even a market. People main occupations were cultivators and horticulturists. Some other occupation like carpentry, fishing, hunting, trader, retail shops, private school teacher, civil paid labour, soldier, police, shopkeeper, etc were found in a small proportion. Government employee are numbering one to twenty in almost every villages. Some saw mill, rice mill, small cottage and handicraft equipment and industries are found. It is usually own and operated by individual who are having traditional skill and knowledge in that very handicraft.

Land system

Land accessible for farming is available in plenty. The areas of land available are 507sq.km. Parts of land are homestead land and barren land. land ownership comprises mainly in three forms Individual Ownership, Community Ownership and Clan Ownership. In 9 villages no land alienation problems were found but one village have encountered such problem because of encroachment by other people. land viable for horticulture crops is abundantly available. It is found to be 459sq.km, in area that can be used for horticultural crops; villagers were continuing jhum cultivation but were no longer productive They have been doing becat:Jse of lack of alternative occupation for their livelihood and is no longer a highly rewarding activities anymore.

The respondents in all the survey villages said, they can stop jhum as and when alternatives activities like horticultural activities are at their reached. They also want Government and Ngos too; to give them awareness and encourage farming financially, technologically and to build up skills of the farmer in pursuing towards highly rewarding activity like growing commercial and cash crops especially horticultural crops.

And some villages were also cultivating wet land but in a small proportion due to unsuitability of the terrain, steep and undulating Mountains. About 64 Sq.km in area are used for wet farming. All kinds of fruits, vegetables, plantation, commercial, flowers, medicinal herbs have tremendously found viable and productive in the region. People are found heavily practicing horticultural activities in a smaller scale with the small saving of their family. Credit facilities and loans are absent completely to grow crops as large entrepreneur.

Irrigation

Six villages were found having no irrigation facility but only four villages have irrigation facilities even these are from natural sources like river, stream and rain etc. The villages used untreated water for drinking as well as for washing and bathing. The water is normally of hard and soft water which is rich in acidity contained as a consequence of which most people had suffered from stomach problem. Water is abundant, being rainiest district with heavy precipitation during rainy season. They would not have water scarcity problem both for field and family; if they conserve rainwater. But such facilities are not available till this survey. Drastic and major attention can be paid towards irrigation, safe drinking water and for field and farm by government and policy maker of the state.

Flora and Fauna

Varieties of wild animal four footed, reptiles, insects, worms, bird are enormously found. Animals like fox, horn bill, tiger etc, are even found in the past decades but now they are on the verse of extinction. So, also migratory birds are seen, during winter season in some villages. Numerous wild orchids and medicinal herbs are used by practitioners who are skill in traditional medicines'. Mushroom of mostly of fungi bacteria are found in every village. Reptiles like python, cobra, others spices are founds and lot of birds like horn bill, kites, eagles, parrot, mynah, cuckoos, etc are also available. Numerous frogs, turtles and water animals and many others animal are still in the forest. These animals are mercilessly killed and hunted for meat, skin, and bone etc.

People, culture, health care and nutrition

The people mostly who inhabited in Tamenglong district are Zeliangrong Nagas, administered by villages republic and normally ruled by elders (Gerontology). They have got various accounts of fork song and folk tales having distinctive and elegant culture with no thief or robbery, people are innocent and hardworking. Beggars are out of sight people lived by a way of egalitarian society with high moral values and crimes are very few. They have rich culture which are seen in traditional dress and ornaments of men, women and old people, usually made and design for various occasions and feasting.

Women are highly respected but normally submissive to husband. There were few instances of domestic violent and harassments meted to womenfolk. Hardly, written materials are available because people normally learnt by oral basis. Folk song and folk tales relates to romance, amity, battles, harvest, sowing, farming, patriotic, legend, moral value, etc. These people are normally freedom loving people and normally do not bow down to external rule or encroachment within their village periphery. They are open minded and simple people, rarely no family or household made fencing around the house.

Everyone is allowed to visit others members of the village, this inter­mixing of all and oneness is common features of their life. These people are deprived of health care facility and their food and dietary habit are very low. No good hospital, no doctor and nurse in most villages. Few villages have availed of such opportunities. Therefore, people died of even minor diseases, pregnant women die during child birth, normally children are malnourished and their growths are stunted and retarded. People mostly consume home grown fruits and vegetables including roots and fibrous substances and all kind of wild green leafy vegetables. Luckily, they consume lot of green and fresh fruit and vegetables free from chemical like NPK.

Forest Products Consumption and horticultural crops grown in the villages:

The people depend on forest for survival, dwelling, food and for fuel. They depend mainly on timber for house construction, wood for firewood, canes and bamboos for small scale industries and cottage industries products like basket, winnowing fan, and bamboo mat etc. Even for meat they preferred wild meat.

The survey revealed that tremendous scope and potentiality for production of horticulture crops in greater scale.

All kinds of horticulture crops are viable and earn an additional income to every household. Yet, majority of the households are not producing for market but only for self consumption and to earn just an extra-income for the family. There are about 464 sq. km of land that can be utilized for the growing. There are lot of central sponsored schemes for rapid expansion of horticulture in the region; but not any schemes reached them on time and many farmers are without such schemes. It is reported by farmer that fruits, vegetables, woody perennial plants, floriculture, plantation crops, ornamentals, orchids, cash crops, and medicinal herbs are very much favourable to their land and topography of their land, climate, weather and sunshine. So people are eagerly waiting for such project to take up in a larger scale.

Storage facility

Out of ten survey villages, eight of them have no storage facilities and only two have got it. Mostly, they constructed a separate hut to store the horticultural produces. These products were sometimes spoiled by rodent and rat. But most people usually store beneath bed, on the corner of corridor, in the backyard and in the kitchen roof where fire smokes are reaching. This is one area that should be look into for further development of horticulture in the region.

Educational institution

Only 17 Governments Institution mainly primary and middle school were found in the surveyed villages only one private institution are found. This indicates a deplorable way of educating the rural people. Many people could not get proper education in their formation age so even those who have talent no longer get education and people have no tastes and liking for education. This has been a setback for improving their living standard. Even majority of the farmers don't know the three R's i.e. reading, writing and arithmetic.

Historical account

Every village has some sort of historical account of village's formation, dwelling and historical sites which is important to them. Most common monument founds are caves, megaliths, stone inscription, Village gates, ritual spots etc., and also in olden times some villages have informed about the existence of extra-ordinarily strong men and women of their times.

Employment status and credit availability

In all the villages people are found getting job in the government as well as in private. But the number of employed varies from merely 10 to 20; out of some 90 to 150 households in every villages. Very few people are occupied in A-class jobs and many who are employed are in C-grades and D-grades. The total people employed are 417 persons and 20 are in private jobs as revealed from ten villages. This small proportion of people cannot do much for the progress and development of an area or locality so, it is felt a strong need to give them every person self employed by way of exploiting the resources available within the villages and thereby creating jobs avenue at their own places. Normally, the working hour is 9 to 10 hours as reported. Credit facilities are nil, the only money that is circulated is own saving and day today wage earning of the villagers. Therefore, availability of credit is necessary for them; to take up any venture which needs to be addressed by the government of the land.

Assessment of climate change

The climate has slowly and gradually transformed from good to bad. It is revealed that all the villages were found complaining of the hotness of the weather as compare to the past decades. Even weather condition during a day is complicated to decide. However, pollution of land, water and air is not observed; but these need to be scientifically proved by an expert. Productivity and fertility of the crops, land and soil have depleted and eroded. Trees are felled rampantly.

Landslides are common in every rainy season. All these factors revealed that there is no seriousness on conserving nature and protecting environment from destruction. Matured forest which is larger than the minor forests in the past have now indicated the opposite. Minor forest is far more than that of mature one, Water, pond, small river and lake, etc., were becoming dry and pond are becoming shallow and fresh water are becoming scarce. Therefore, the survey confirmed, environment are very much venerable and remains an issue within building rural ecology cycle. This sustainable environment agenda will be rightly addressed when more awareness is given to all and sundry to the villagers. —concluded