Meghalaya, located in Northeast India, is the third largest producer of strawberries in India, according to the local government. On average, about 500 metric tonnes of the fragile fruit is grown each year on 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) of land. Increasingly erratic rainfall has led to the spread of fungal diseases in the berries, and much hotter temperatures have cut into production over the last three years, farmers say. The weather changes has also threatened years of efforts to build a thriving strawberry production and marketing system in the region, with the help of the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE). Until the weather changed, "it worked really well. The strawberries were sent to different parts of the country and were even exported to Bangladesh," said Hemanta Rabha, an IIE official. The IIE also financed the building of a high-tech nursery for strawberry seedlings in in 2012, at a cost of around 1.5 million Indian rupees (23,000). With shifting weather patterns, including early heavy rains and some hail, the established system of planting in September and harvesting around April is leading to growing crop damage, Rabha said. Strawberry production has fallen sharply over the past three years. Last year Meghalaya produced under 200 tonnes, less than half the annual average for the state, officials said. The harsher weather also has hit production of strawberry plants at the Sohliya nursery, forcing many growers to import plants from California. However, a large number of those have been damaged by heat, farmers said. The growers are exploring moving the local nursery to a cooler area at Kynshi, nearly 100 kilometres (63 miles) away, Lynghoi said. Meanwhile Veerendra Verma, a scientist at the Indian Council for Agriculture Research, advises growers to plant earlier in the season to avoid high temperatures at the time the strawberry plants flower. Source - http://www.freshplaza.com