DACS finds fauji market for Sikkim’s oranges

GANGTOK, 15 Dec: The Denzong Agricultural Cooperative Society Ltd [DACS], the apex body of Primary Co-operative Societies here, has taken up marketing local oranges in bulk from Neh Manzing, Turuk, Ramyang and Melli Dara, South Sikkim for supplying to the Indian Army, informs a press communiqué received from DACS Managing Director MT Sherpa.
This initiative is part of the DAC effort to undertake local marketing of fruits, vegetables and broilers in bulk for Army consumption as well as local retail sales.
The effort has been well received by local growers.
This Orange season, from mid-November to mid-December, DACS marketed a staggering 22,192 Kgs (approximately 2,70,000 pieces) of oranges from local orchards, Mr. Sherpa informs. This has protected them from exploitation in the hands of unscrupulous fly by night middlemen and traders as well as ensured gainful income opportunities among farmers, he underlines.
All marketing is done through farm-gate collection that is by way of door-to-door collection reaching every farmer/producer and payments are also being made promptly, he adds.
Over the past four to five years, the marketing of local produce by DACS has seen a quantum jump benefitting both the local farmers as suppliers and the Army as consumers. DACS has disbursed Rs. 86.45 lakh and Rs. 92 lakh for October and November 2013 alone respectively among farmers on account of broiler marketing, for instance. From April to November 2013, the Society marketed 4.58 lakh kg of local broilers. In addition to this, DACS has recently started marketing of local broilers produced by Poultry Estate Mangalbarey, West Sikkim initiated as pilot project by State Government.