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Lanuakum Imchen, second from right, shakes hands with Krishna Raj as the former receives the 2018 Best India Organic Farmer award, on Dec. 28 in New Delhi.[/caption]
Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Jan. 8: A farmer from Nagaland, Lanuakum Imchen, proprietor of ‘Cold Mountain,’ was awarded the 2018 Best India Organic farmer award for North and North East India on Dec. 28 at Hotel Hyatt Regency, in New Delhi. The award was presented by Krishna Raj, Union minister of state for Agriculture and Farmers welfare.
Imchen received the Best India Organic Farmer award for being actively involved in organic farming and contributing to the organic movement in the state and country. He has been promoting organic farming for the past five years. The award was given by Jaivik India Award and International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture.
Speaking to Eastern Mirror over the phone, Imchen said Cold Mountain was a brand formed to promote Nagaland’s organic products. “We promote and sell local products of Nagaland, including herbs, spices, and tea, among others,” Imchen said.
Imchen said Cold Mountain has 13 young people working in Dimapur and Mokokchung. The group has a farm in Mokokchung where cultivation is carried out. ‘Finished products are brought to Dimapur and packaging is done in Dimapur, located at Duncan Basti,’ he added.
Explaining that resources come from almost every part of the district in Nagaland, Imchen said the group sometimes collaborate with other farmers, and buy their products, besides training them.
“We buy raw materials from farmers, after which cultivation and processing is carried out in our farm in Mokokchung; sometimes we train the farmers to do the processing themselves,” Imchen said.
Once packaging is done, the group sells the products in Nagaland and outside. Imchen said that the aim of the group was to take Nagaland’s products to international markets for which they had been tirelessly working.
“When we go for exposure outside of Nagaland, we make sure that others get to know about our products. We educate them and explained them about the products. That way, they will get interested in our products,” the proprietor of Cold Mountain maintained. He claimed that ‘by doing that even if others don’t come and buy directly from us, other farmers are also benefitting from it.’
The group has coordinators promoting and selling Cold Mountain products in other parts of the state. They dispatch packaged products whenever they received orders. Informing that the group’s focus was young people, Imchen said they employ only young coordinators outside the state.
Imchen is also a part of the group ‘Nagaland organic connect.’ He revealed that Cold Mountain will be collaborating with Nagaland organic connect to conduct ‘International workshop on organic farming,’ on Jan. 12 at Hotel Acacia in Dimapur.
