Honourable PM Sh Narendra Modi Ji in Mann Ki Baat program on July 25, 2021 applauded the efforts of farmers of Ukhrul district, Manipur for growing apple. This was initiative of CSIR-IHBT, Palampur on Apple cultivation in NE. CSIR-IHBT conceived a project on introduction of apple cultivation in NE for which we signed an MoU with NERCORMP.
We supplied 40,000 plants for cultivation in Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.
IHBT had developed tissue culture based virus tested apple root stock technology, which is being used for grafting apple varieties. Material transfer agreement was signed with a few enterpreneurs who are multiplying root stocks and grafting apple varieties. These varieties were introduced by us in Manipur and other states in North East.
Apple saplings were supplied by us, offered training to the farmers in Manipur for cultivation, and did continuous hand holding. We were fully involved in the entire activity chain of the project, which include conception of the project, supply of planting material, training, hand holding and finally apples are yielding fruits.