January 29, 2023 - NewsHub: Breaking Stories

In the recent Fish Festival of Manipur

January 29, 2023April 2, 2023 - by Yenda News Agency

Picture Credit :: **Banti Phurailatpam**

Manipur is a hotspot in terms of fish production. The famous fresh water lake Loktak supplies most of the fishes for the State and it is also being exported to neighbouring States. Manipuri’s eat lots of fishes and most of the boiled vegetable curries are incomplete without fermented and dry fish. On a single day a family consumes minimum of 50 grams dry fish as side dish or part of a curry. Ima Market and most of the markets in the valley districts sales fresh fishes. Fish curry remains the favorite curry. Several types of local fishes are also eaten for good health at the time of recovering from illness. The State also imports sea fishes from other States of India. Besides several types of fishes also comes from the neighboring country Myanmar.

Let’s us take a look at two of the fish festivals the State Government organizes for two major festivals where fishes are offered to local deity and fishes are served as main course in a cultural feast in every home.

Emoinu Fish Festival 2023

The first Emoinu Fish Festival, 2023 organized by the Department of Fishery at Hapta Kangjeibung on the day of Emoinu Festival registered sale of 51,362 Kgs of different species of fish including 2600 kgs of home grown Meitei Sareng. Fish farmers of Bishnupur district contributed the highest production with 17,709 Kgs followed by Imphal West district with 14,218 Kgs and Thoubal district with 9009 Kgs.

A significant outcome of Emoinu Fish Festival, 2023 is that the total proceeds accrued from the sale of fish accounted for Rs 1.30 crore which is a spectacular achievement for the fish farmers and Fishery Department.

Emoinu Fish Festival witnessed departmental stalls of Agriculture, Horticulture, MOMA, Forest and various start-ups catering to agro and allied products like organic black rice, ginger, turmeric, fresh seasonal vegetables, value added local fruits, beverages, etc which provided a shopping spree and extravaganza to the visitors.

Ningol Chakouba Fish Festival 2022

Around 200 fish farmers from 16 different districts participated in the fish fair. Manipur government arranged 155 stalls for the participants free of cost and the travel allowance for fish farmers were reimbursed. Apart from common fish varieties easily available in the market, indigenous fishes like Pengba/Khabak; Ngaton; Ngahei; Ukabi (Anabus); Porom (Murrel) and Tunghanbi (Tilapia) were on sale during the fish fair.

Speaking at the festival, the fishery minister Dingo opined that fish production has increased considerably when compared to previous years. The department has managed to produce 1.25 lakh kg this year against the previous year’s requirement of 90,000 kgs. The minister also stated that with the increasing number of fish farmers and the adoption of new technologies, the state can become self-sufficient in fish farming by 2005 Director of, department of fisheries, Heisnam Balkrishna Singh said the department fixed reasonable fish prices especially for the fish fair.

For promotion of good yield and to encourage fish production in the State competition are held annually and the first prize winner, second and third prize winners were awarded a cash prize of Rs 1 Lakh, Rs 70,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively.

The highest producer of indigenous fish was awarded a cash prize of Rs 20,000 and 20 consolation prizes worth Rs 10,000 were also given to the fisherman.

Article

2022 Edition of Fruit festivals in Manipur

January 29, 2023April 2, 2023 - by Yenda News Agency - 2 Comments.

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.