Jammu, Sept. 26 -- The wonder berry of Ladakh, sea buckthorn, also called the real life Himalayan 'Sanjeevani Booti', is all set to see proper and systematic cultivation, which in turn is likely to propel the fortunes of the local community. The secretary of industries and commerce department of Ladakh UT, Himanshu Gupta said, "For the promotion of sea buckthorn, the lieutenant governor (LG) has issued directions to us to explore areas for cultivating it in a systematic way." Hitherto, this wonder berry is grown in the wild. "We are into the process of starting proper cultivation of sea buckthorn. For post-harvest processing, the ministry of micro, small & medium enterprises (MSME) is providing technological upgradation and funds to entrepreneurs, who want to upgrade their technology," said Gupta. Recently a reverse buyer-seller meet was held in Leh, wherein participants from Mongolia, Vietnam and other countries attended the event. "The meet provided us a window to look into best practices adopted by various countries for the scientific production of sea buckthorn across the world. It also provided us an opportunity to see how it is being processed world-wide," said Gupta. The official also informed that the Ladakh UT administration was also in talks with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Giri Institute of Development Studies (GIRI) for integrating the wild harvesting of sea buckthorn into institutional research. Further, the industries and commerce department of the Ladakh UT has plans to come up with fire lines inside the forests on higher reaches of Ladakh so that the juicy orange berries were plucked easily. While the primary purpose of these fire lines always remains to protect valuable crops from devastating forest fires, they also act as easy access paths for the cultivators to safely navigate the thick, heavily protective thorns. "We are mulling fire lines so that we can collect these berries from forests on higher reaches. For now, only 20 to 25% is being collected from the jungles and the remaining 75% goes to waste because they are not collected," said Gupta. As of now, Ladakh harvests around 1,500 tons a year in September, primarily from three districts: Nubra, Leh, and Kargil. "The systematic cultivation of sea buckthorn has been thought of as a basic concept to increase the participation of the local community and in turn its productivity," said the official. Gupta informed that his department was presently busy studying Russian and other varieties of sea buckthorn. "We are studying Russian and other varieties and the best suited to the climate of Ladakh vis-a-vis its productivity will be introduced for cultivation," he said. According to the government plans, the work on proper cultivation is likely to start by next month. "We are preparing a proposal and roughly 1,000 families will be associated with its cultivation in the initial stage," said Gupta. It may be stated here that LG VK Saxena had recently written a letter to Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the ministry has constituted a committee for raising a National Sanjeevani Research Centre in Nubra for research, development, genetic improvement, propagation, harvesting, and value addition of sea buckthorn. A building in Nubra has already been identified for the purpose and a proposal is submitted to the agriculture ministry. A team of the agriculture ministry has also visited the place. The LG, on September 18, announced to increase the procurement price of sea buckthorn from Rs.150 per kg last year to minimum Rs.300 per kg this year, effecting a massive increase of 100%. The move was aimed at increasing the income of farmers and local communities engaged in production of sea buckthorn....