[caption id="attachment_285652" align="aligncenter" width="565"]
A tourist purchases a Yacon Ground Apple at Kisama. (EM Images)[/caption]
Our Correspondent
Kisama, Dec. 3 (EMN): Yacon Ground Apple produced by a farmer from a village in the Pfutsero sub-division, the highest altitude town in Nagaland, is an unlike product that visitors can get at the Hortiscape at Kisama.
On Tuesday, farmer Ade spoke to the
Eastern Mirror about the Yacon. Ade is a farmer from Phusachodu village whose produce is a unique attraction at the Naga Organic Pavilion of the Hortiscape.
She maintained it is not an indigenous fruit and narrated how a church leader had from an international trip brought the seed three years ago and how she cultivated it.
“This (Yacon Ground Apple) can be cultivated within a year and has lots of health benefit,” said the farmer. Speaking about the taste, she said, “Yacon Ground Apple Taste best, after a few days gap from the harvest.”
The root looks like a sweet tapioca and is said to have been harvested from ground. A kilo costs INR 150 and a slice costs INR 20.
According to the farmer, the benefits from consuming the Yacon Ground Apple includes improvement of digestive health, prevention of diabetes or its risk, promotion of weight loss, lowering of cholesterol levels, strengthened immune system, bones; prevention of anemia, besides detoxifying the body, and helping prevent cancer. It also helps reduce constipation, the farmer claimed.
On the response of the people at the festival she said, “Although it’s a new fruit, being put to sale, the response of the people is positive and lots of tourists are purchasing besides the local visitors.”
Impressed by the response, Ade spoke of a desire to start mass plantation stating the benefits and the suitability of the root with the land.
