Saramati Apple Festival

:-)

The first Saramati Apple Festival was held at Thanamir Village on September 29 with Dr N. Benjong Aier, Mission Director (TM-NE), Directorate of Horticulture, as the chief guest.

Apple Store

The Festival was organised by the Department of Horticulture in collaboration with the Nagaland Missions Movement (NMM) and Thanamir Village Council.

Sale. Sold Out within an hour

Yummy

In his speech, the chief guest pointed out that the apples in Thanamir Village came as a gift of God, a gift that grew out of friendship between an Army personnel and J Yungbokhiung of Thanamir Village. He has urged for a partnership among the villagers, the NMM and the Horticulture Department to develop apple cultivation so that the present state of apples being used for personal consumption could be turned into a rich source of income for the villagers. The Department has already provided few thousand apple plants last year brought from Himachal Pradesh which are also doing very well. He emphasized on following the specifications as given by the Department based on scientific methods of cultivation like the importance of proper spacing, pruning and training, right cultivars, etc which are necessary for bearing quality fruits and to compete with those in the markets on commercial line.

Rev. Wati Longkumer

The villagers built a wooden bridge for the festival

He also expressed the need for improvement of road condition in the name of Apple Road coupled with Tourist Road as Thanamir is on the way to Mt. Saramati. He commented that market for the apples should not be a problem. He has also proposed Self Help Groups to be trained in making of apple juices and other preservation methods so that these items could be sold even at the State Hornbill Festival. “Not only will all these bring immense economic benefit to the villagers, it can also boost cross-border missionary work as the NMM is engaged in such a project at the village,” the chief guest said.
The chief guest also echoed the proposal of the Parliamentary Secretary (CAWD) to make Thanamir known as the “Apple Village.”
Short speeches were given by the SDO (Civil), Pungro, DHO, Kiphire and Thsantsumong.

Bridge Builders

The history of the first apple plants in Thanamir was narrated by Yungbokhiung, the man who planted the first plant in 1981. Rev. Wati Longkumer, Director of NMM spoke on the topic, “Count Yours Blessings.” Tangit Longkumer, NMM Missionary, posted at Thanamir announced that the Saramati Apple Festival will be an annual event.

Apples for sale on the day

The best apples on the day

After the program, apple exhibition-cum-sale was held followed by a training session on commercial cultivation of apple conducted by the Department in which about 150 farmers attended. Horticulture equipments, hybrid vegetable seeds were also distributed to the farmers. The festival was also attended by the SDO (Civil), Kiphire, and many government officials and village council chairmen from the neighbouring villages.