2022 Edition of Fruit festivals in Manipur

Imphal 28 Jan by James Khangenbam

Manipur is primarily an agriculture-based economy. Besides rich vegetables varieties found in the State horticulture products like Pienapple, Orange, Lemon and Banana etc are widely cultivated. The general public during the harvest season celebrates certain festivals, which is being taken up as State festival by the government of Manipur. Among the horticulture-based festivals, Kachai Lemon Festival, Orange festival, Pineapple festival are the most prominent festivals. Let us take a look into the latest editions of the fruit festivals.

Orange Festival, 2022

Orange Festival is celebrated every year in Tamenglong District in the first or second week of December every by the general public of Manipur. The festival has been organized and started since 2001. It was later declared in 2004 as State Level Orange Festival by Manipur Government. The main objective of the festival is to promote the objectives and interests of the orange growers in the district which is the only suitable location to grow in large scale in Manipur.

At the orange festival 2022 edition, altogether 270 orange growers participated in the event. Each participants had to bring a minimum of 1,000 oranges to participate in the grand event. To promote orange grower a competition among orange growers takes place every year. For the year 2022, Gainiliu of Sibilong village under Tousem sub-division was adjudged as the first prize winner in the Orange Festival competition with a cash award of Rs 2 lakh while Tanimliu Kamei of Sibilong village, Tousem sub-division and Gaikhammei of Changdai village, Tamenglong, were adjusted the second and the third berth with a cash award of Rs 1 lakh and Rs 75,000, respectively. In connection with the festival, the State government inaugurated a cold storage to help farmers in storing their products. Mention may also be made that beauty pageant are also being held annually as a part of the festival.

Kachai Lemon Festival, 2022

The 18th edition of the two days Kachai Lemon Festival took place at the Local Ground of Kachai Village in Ukhrul district.Kachai Lemon of Manipur has been accorded Geographical Indication (GI) registration tag and widely grown in the Kachai Village of Ukhrul district. Unlike the other lemon varieties grown in other parts of the world, Kachai Lemon is considered to be unique in nutritional value.

The Kachai Lemon Festival is organised annually to promote the lemon fruit and lemon farmers. This year, altogether 260 stalls are put up at the festival. While inaugurating the festival, Additional Chief Secretary of Manipur P. Vaiphei stated that the Kachai Lemon product has the potential to lift the socio-economic condition of Kachai Village to a great extent.

This year the festival is being organised under the theme ‘Organic Kachai Lemon for Safe Environment and Rural Transformation’. A training program for lemon farmers was also conducted as part of the festival.