Lengte is a village in Reiek Block, Mamit District of Mizoram. It is a village of about 200 houses with a population estimated to be around 653 in 2022. People living in Lengte depend on multiple skills, which include agriculture farming, labour work at industries, livestock keeping and forest resource collection particularly timber and bamboos.

Piggery Farming at Lengte

Lengte has been one of the largest producers of swine in Mizoram. Each house reportedly has an average of 20-30 pigs, while some have over 100 pigs. These pigs are housed in traditional wooden pig sty with a tin roof. The piggeries are self-sufficient in feed as they are fed with agricultural products specially maize. Most piggeries have a pig feed crusher for themselves, with which maize, vegetables and plants are crushed into pieces and used for feeds. Some of the largest piggeries in Mizoram such as CB Agro Piggery Farm, Buannel Piggery Farm and SR Piggery Farm are located at Lengte. The village was selected as one of the Cluster piggery villages under the project IPEED (Invention towards Pig productivity Enhancement through Entrepreneurship Development).

Unfortunately, the other epidemic known as the African Swine Fever (ASF) has been ravaging the swine farms in Lengte since 2021. More than 30,000 pigs died due to ASF resulting in losses worth more than 60 crores of rupees.

Industrial Park – Another major employer at Lengte

The Export Promotion Industrial Park at Lengte is another key employer to the people at Lengte. 26 labour workers are employed full time in the ISPAT industry which is an establishment for processing of iron. This was a deal signed between the company and the NGO’s at Lengte that at least 26 workers should be from the village if the industry is to be established in their land. However, no skilled/technical workers are recruited or trained from the community so far.

Several other industries such as Saw mills, Koinonia Juice and water plant, turmeric and ginger processing plant, plastic processing plant also require labour work from time to time which generates employment to the people at Lengte.

Visit to Export Promotion Industrial Park, Lengte

Several industries were visited at the Export Promotion Industrial Park, Lengte.

Gaps in technology and infrastructure

     A.Lemon processing and preservation:

Lengte village is one of the largest producers of lemon in Mizoram. Even though there is a lemon juice processing plant Koinonia at Lengte, the industry still cannot process most of the lemon produced in the village. Lemon juice is extracted and sold at very low prices, even then many fruits are not harvested due to the poor market. There is a need to process and preserve the surplus lemon produced in the village.

    B.African Swine Fever:

Vaccination is the only known solution to contain the ASF virus right now but it is still out of reach for the poor farmers who are facing one of the worst disasters in their lifetime.

C.Natural resources

Lengte village has a large forest area waiting to be utilised. The main resources in the forests include trees, bamboos, rocks and sands along the river banks of tlawng. Even though there are several sawmill industries, there is a scope for setting up of many other industries such as paper mill industries, bamboo processing industries, plyboard industries etc to utilise the natural resources and generate income to the people.