VARANASI, Sept. 7 -- The Sonbhadra district administration has begun efforts to rejuvenate chironji (Charoli Nut, or Cuddapah Almond) production by motivating farmers to plant more and more saplings of Charoli nuts. As part of the efforts, a Chironji processing unit has been set up in Tenduhar village under developmental block Ghorawal, in Sonbhadra district. District magistrate, Sonbhadra, BN Singh, inaugurated the unit in presence of chief development officer Jagriti Awasthi. The district magistrate said that this processing unit will be given to the self-help groups of the village for operation. The group will increase its income by operating this unit. He said that setting up the unit will reduce the role of middlemen and the farmers will get appropriate price for Chironji kernels, He also added that the district horticulture officer will also buy chironji at an appropriate price. With chironji on the verge of extinction, he said that the forest department and the horticulture department should run a campaign to plant as many chironji trees as possible. CDO Jagriti Awasthi said that women engaged in collecting chironji kernels will get a fair price for the chironji extracted from their kernels from the chironji processing unit, which will enable them to become self-reliant. She added that until this unit was not established, the price of chironji kernels, through middlemen, was Rs 100 to 200 per kg. Now they will get an appropriate price for their production. The CDO said that during talks with the farmers, it came to light that due to lack of proper arrangements for extracting seeds from the chironji kernels and their marketing, the middlemen buy the chironji fruits from the farmers at low prices....