How This 85-Year-Old Pioneered Persimmon Farming In Nagaland

Is Persimmon farming the future of agriculture in Nagaland's cold hills?

In the high, cold winds of Pfütsero, Veputso Tetseo stands as a quiet outlier in contemporary farming. At 85, he has spent the last decade and a half reshaping his land with patience and intent, converting paddy fields into a thriving persimmon orchard that now holds close to a thousand trees. What sets Veputso apart is not scale, but method. He has never used chemical inputs on his farm, relying instead on organic practices and traditional knowledge refined over a lifetime. Through years of experimentation, he has perfected a grafting technique that uses locally available trees as rootstock, allowing persimmons to adapt to the region’s harsh climate while preserving soil health and ecological balance.

Veputso’s work matters because it offers a living alternative to chemical-dependent agriculture in Nagaland, where fragile mountain ecosystems are easily degraded. Even in his late eighties, he continues to raise new saplings, driven by a desire to see persimmon farming spread sustainably across the region. His goal is not personal gain alone, but continuity—ensuring that future farmers inherit land that is fertile, resilient, and alive with possibility. In nurturing trees that will outlive him, Veputso is quietly investing in a long-term vision of agriculture rooted in care, restraint, and respect for both tradition and the land.

Chapters

00:00 The mother plant
00:52 The background story
01:43 The start of persimmon and kiwi farming
04:02 The economics
04:37 Organic farming techniques
08:02 The future

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