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Kashmir almonds ready to hit markets

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Werwan (J-K), Sept 19 (ANI): With the almond harvesting reaching its final stages, the growers are gearing up to hit the local market in Kashmir.

Residents of Werwan village in Pulwama district, very famous for almonds, are busy harvesting the almond crops.

Eighty-five per cent people are doing the almond business. These days, they are very busy in harvesting.

“This year, the almonds were bigger and the kernel was also large. We hope that this year because of good quality, we will get good rates for our almonds,” said Jan Muhammad Lone, a grower.

With a comparatively good and timely rainfall this season, the state authorities are hoping for a better return for the growers.

“This year and even last year, the kernel developments were excellent. Compared to last year, this year we have received timely rainfall during the fruit development months of almonds that is May and June.

Therefore, the almond farmers are quite happy that their crop yields are good and they will receive good money of it,” said Manzoor Ahmed, a horticulture development officer.

Shalimar, Makdoon and Waris are some of the varieties of almonds that are grown in Kashmir. By Afzal Butt (ANI)

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Bumper crop of plums in Kashmir

July 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Budgam (Jammu and Kashmir), July 14 (ANI): People in different parts of the country can expect to relish delicious plums or, Aloobukharas in common parlance, as there has been a bumper crop in Kashmir.

Kashmir’s Budgam district, which grows plums had good rainfall coupled with moderate temperature this year.

As per the State Government, 2000 hectares of land of the valley is under plum cultivation. The production of plums this year is expected to touch 5500 metric tons, 500 metric tonnes more than the last year.

“The production is high in the entire region, even the colour of our fruit is better that that was in the last season…every fruit grower is happy as they are fetching good prices for their fruits,” Salim Ahmad Bhat, a plum grower said.

As soon as the orchard owners and growers bring their yield to the wholesale markets, they are packed and dispatched to various states of the country.

“According to our information and observation 80 percent of the entire plum produce is of ‘A’ grade quality which is better than the last year…we hope that this year growers of the region will fetch good profit,” said Manzoor Ahmad, an official with the State Horticulture Department.

Plums have different varieties like sentarosa, silver plum, and chokandra plum. The juicy and tasty plum is much sought after in Mumbai, Kolkota and Delhi. By Afzal Bhat (ANI)

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SKUAST introduces new techniques to improve agri-sector in Kashmir

June 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Srinagar, June 24 (ANI): The Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) in Kashmir have organized an exhibition-cum- science congress for the farmers to apprise them of new techniques in agriculture and horticulture.

“The main aim of this exhibition is to make latest technical innovations in agriculture, sericulture, animal husbandry and floriculture available to the farmers and to showcase the technical innovations from other countries so that the interaction takes place between both the countries,” said Fayaz Bandey, one of the organizers.

During the Congress experts, farmers and residents were provided information about new seeds, breeds and equipment.

Showkat Hussain, an apple fruit grower said that such exhibitions should be organized in all the districts in time so that the farmers get the information about the new seeds ahead of the sowing season.

” such exhibitions should take place in all the districts and from March because the season starts from March so that the growers get the information about the new seeds,” said Hussain.

Agriculture is the backbone of Kashmir economy because eighty percent people depend on this sector for their livelihood. By Afzal Bhat(ANI)

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Guava cultivation in mango belt

June 23, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Malihabad (UP), May 23 (ANI): Poor production of mango has forced the mango growers in Malihabad region to take up guava cultivation.

Famous as the mango belt of the country, this region of Uttar Pradesh, is witnessing a sea change as more and more mango cultivators have switched over to growing guavas because the production of mango has not been good since last three years.

Considering the high investment that the mango growers have to make for growing mangoes, the losses incurred are too much to bear when the crop is not up to the expectations.

Faced with such a scenario, the mango growers have been forced to switch over to cultivating guavas.

“People are fed up with growing mangoes. So they are planning to cut their orchards and grow guavas, or even wheat, which also gets good money in the market, ” said Vijyendra Kumar, a mango grower.

Guava has caught the fancy of mango growers as it requires less investment, is less prone to diseases, needs less water and requires minimal care.ccording to estimates, around 25 percent of the mango growers in Malihabad are already in the process of taking up guava cultivation.

“This year, the production of mangoes was less, due to which the fruit growers incurred heavy losses and are now hard pressed for money. Also mango crop is more susceptible to pest attacks, whereas diseases do not infect guavas easily. All these factors are reason enough that mango growers are switching over to cultivating guavas, ” said Gautam Tripathi, another mango grower.

As against mango that gives yield once a year, the growers get better money from cultivating guavas, which yields fruit twice a year. By Kamna Hajela(ANI)

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Pineapple crop hit by scanty rainfall in West Bengal

June 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Jalpaiguri (WB), June 21 (ANI): Absence of ample rainfall and in certain places no rains at all has affected the pineapple crop in Jalpaiguri region of West Bengal.

Bidhannagar, located around 45 kilometres from Siliguri, which is famous for pineapples is the worst hit.

Due to the paucity of rainfall, almost all the pineapples are either deformed or smaller in size.

“The production of the pineapple is badly affected as there is acute scarcity of rains. There has been no rainfall for the past six to seven months. Because of that the size of the pineapple is not as good as compared to last year. Now there is no demand from outside. We used to export fruits from our farms to Nepal and Bhutan,” said Arun Mondal, Secretary, North Bengal Pineapple Farmers Association, Bidhannagar, West Bengal.

“The overall production has gone down by 25 percent,” he added.

Consequently, Nepal and Bhutan, the prominent countries importing pineapples from Bidhannagar are reluctant to purchase the inferior produce.

“As the weather has not been favourable for the pineapple this year, the size of the pineapple is reduced. There is a huge demand for pineapples in foreign countries. If the government gives some attention to the fruit, there will be considerable benefit for the farmers and development of the pineapple trade,” said Vishal Gosh, a pineapple grower, Bidhannagar, West Bengal.

The growers also recalled that a matured pineapple from Bidhannagar weighing between two to three kilograms would fetch them over eight rupees but for the weather gods this season. By Taruk Sarkar (ANI)

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International airport to boost flower export business in Kashmir

March 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Srinagar, Mar 27 (ANI): The opening of an international airport has buoyed the hopes of flower growers in Kashmir as avenues for selling their produce in international markets open up.

Flower growers and exporters are anticipating a huge boost in flower business, as they are hopeful to tap the international markets especially the Gulf countries where the demand for flowers is quite high.

Kashmir’s floriculture department is quite upbeat about taking the state’s flowers on international arena and will soon be imparting technical know how and providing other help to the growers for expanding their business.

“Very soon we will try and impart technical support and provide other know how like finance to our flower growers and encourage them in every possible way so that the flower business will get a good chance to grow and boom with the opening of this international airport,” said G.S Naqash, Director, Floriculture Department, Kashmir.

The flower growers are also happy as they can now sell their produce in the international market at no extra cost.

The freight charge paid by the flower growers to ship their flowers to Delhi is around 25 to 30 rupees freight per kilogram but for sending the same produce to Dubai, the freight will cost them only 10 rupees per kilogram because of the subsidy provided by the Agriculture Product Export Development Agency (APEDA).

Also the reduction in freight time is an added advantage.

“Earlier we used to worry about the flowers that we used to send from here as it used to rot in the transport time only. But now with the international airport, we can send across our flowers within few hours and this could benefit the flower growers a lot,” said Nazir Ahmed, a flower grower.

Floriculture has evolved as lucrative employment option in Kashmir in the recent years. Gerbera, Lilium, Carnation, Marigold, Tulips are some of the flowers grown and exported from the valley. The state has a rich market of flowers worth over 100 million rupees. By Parvez Butt(ANI)

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Hot weather conditions reduce Nagpur’s orange yield

March 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Nagpur, Mar 20 (ANI): Poor weather conditions and dry spell have hit orange yield by 60-80 percent in Nagpur

Also hit by infections, the orange trees bore few fruits this year.

Sporadic rainfall in the region ‘upset’ the orange cart, even before the flowers began to sprout. Untimely fall off the trees has dashed the hopes of the orchard owners.

“Due to climate change and infection at the time of flowering, the trees did not yield any fruit. Moreover, the temperature was also hot and due to shortage of water, the farmers couldn’t not irrigate the garden,” said Satish Goothmaray, an orange grower

“This year, the variety of oranges is quite less because of shortage of rainfall and also due to viral infection like fungal infection, the production of oranges have fallen sharply,” said Arvind Monglay, an agriculture expert.

Nagpur District produces a large number of good quality oranges, grown in a total area of 12,500 hectares. There is a ready market for these oranges throughout the country. By Sunil (ANI)

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Orissa farmers protest against endorsement of genetically modified seeds

March 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Bhubaneswar, Mar 18 (ANI): Upset over the government’s apathy towards cotton growers after they had incurred heavy losses due to illegal cultivation of BT cotton, farmers in Orissa, under the banner of the United Coalition Against Genetic Engineering (UNCAGE) held a protest march here on Tuesday.

UNCAGE, the forum comprising of farmers and voluntary fora in Orissa were protesting against the impending regularisation of illegal cultivation of BT cotton and the government’s proposal to conduct field trails of BT brinjal, also a genetically modified crop.

Alleging that big multinationals are illegally selling BT cotton seeds to farmers, the consortium of UNCAGE and other NGOs protested against these intentions of the state government.

They further alleged that the farmers who sowed the BT cotton seeds were promised of a bumper yield to the tune of nine to ten quintals of cotton per acre whereas in reality it was hardly two to three quintals per acre.

“It is not allowed to grow BT cotton in Orissa but still BT cotton seeds were found here and farmers have been growing BT cotton illegally for the last one year. The Government turned a blind eye at this illegal cultivation as a result the farmers have incurred great losses,” said Jaganath Chatterjee, President, UNCAGE.

The farmers claimed that they were provided with inferior cotton seeds, as such they are now demanding compensation from the government for the losses incurred by them.

“We have suffered a lot of loss due to BT cotton cultivation. We were provided bad cotton seeds and have come here to demand for compensation,” said Ala, a cotton grower.

Despite all the adverse trends, the farmers alleged that the Agriculture Department of Orissa is bent upon regularising the illegal BT cotton cultivation in the State and also encourage field trials of BT brinjals.

India allowed commercial cultivation of bacillus thuringiensis or Bt cotton in 2002, sparking off protests from activists who say genetically altered crops are a health hazard, spoil soil texture and harm the environment.

Increasing cotton output has encouraged government officials to support the technology, which is seen as a viable step to feed the country’s more than one billion population when farmland is shrinking rapidly due to industrialization and urban spread. (ANI)

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Himachal farmers demand minimum support price for Ginger crop

March 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Sirmour (HP), Mar 14 (ANI): Ginger farmers and traders in Himachal Pradesh have sought minimum support price fixed by the Government so as to directly export their produce.

Bella valley in Sirmour District of Himachal Pradesh is famous for producing varieties of quality ginger and the people mainly depend on cultivating ginger for their livelihood.

Although ginger, the main cash crop of the area is now ready for export in the overseas markets, farmers are upset over the apathy of the State Government towards them despite their crop fetching valuable foreign exchange from the buyers abroad.

“The Government has not given support price to our crop. We demand that support price should be announced for our crop similar to apple growers in Shimla,” said Mohan Thakur, a ginger grower.

There is a great demand for Himachal ginger in Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Middle East and several central Asian countries.

“The dried ginger from Bela is very famous and it is very much in demand in the Asian market. Our entire livelihood is dependent on this crop and we get good money for the crop,” said Pratap Singh, a farmer.

The farmers have also demanded a proper market to be managed by the Government. They claimed that the dry ginger from their lands has medicinal value and usually a kilogram of dry ginger fetches upto rupees 500.

The crop is cultivated in 1850 hectares of land and the overall production is in the range of 24,000 tonnes. Majority of people in Himachal depend on earnings from the cultivation of cash crops like apple, ginger, potato, and various fruits and vegetables.By Hemant Chauhan (ANI)

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High yield of tomato in Uttarakhand results in price fall

March 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Haldwani, Feb 28 (ANI): Farmers in Uttarakhand have a problem of plenty, excess production of tomatoes pushing the prices down.

Known as poor man’s apple, tomatoes are grown in approximately 1000 acres of land in the state. The farmers used to reap enough profit for their crop.

But this year, the high yield of tomatoes coupled with drying demand in the market has considerably brought down the prices of the crop to rupees 50 per box of tomatoes in the wholesale market.

“The production of tomatoes this year was quite good, but we are not getting the expected price. A box of tomato is sold at rupees 50. We are running into losses. We sell the tomatoes in Haldwani market, which is around 13-14 kilometres from here and we have to pay the labour fee also. The labours charge rupees 20 per box, so we are hardly making any profit,” said Tejpal Singh, a tomato grower.

Earlier, tomatoes from Uttarakhand were even exported to Pakistan.

“Not just in Uttarakhand, the production of tomato was quite good in other states as well. Earlier, we used to sell tomatoes in other states and export even to Pakistan,” said NK Joshi, an official in Nainital.

And now due to the production of tomatoes in other states and lack of demand in the market, the farmers are forced to throw away their crops and sell it into losses. By Vipul Goel (ANI)

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Staggering technique benefits pineapple growers in Tripura

February 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Nandan Nagar (Tripura), Feb 26 (ANI): Pineapple growers in Tripura are a happy lot as the staggering technique has given a boost to the pineapple yield.

Earlier, the farmers were gradually moving towards rubber plantation, a more profitable commodity.

“I’m working here for last 25 years. After adapting to the staggering technique, we are able to work all through the year. We have overall benefited from this technique,” said Muksud Ali, a pineapple grower.

Pineapple is a highly perishable food-crop and even in the cold storage it lasts only for 28 days.

Now with the introduction of a new process called ‘staggering’ the farmers can harvest the fruit according to their requirement throughout the year.

The staggering method has been tested and proven in Tripura’s Horticulture Research Complex in Nagricherra area. It was first introduced in 25 hectares of farm land in 2005. Now, altogether 200 hectares of land was brought under staggering cultivation for getting raw pineapples in 8-10 months per year.

“Last year, we had started staggering technique in pineapple. We use Ethel and Sodium Carbonate along with two per cent urea.

To showcase this technique, we have developed a small plot. During the glut period, the pineapple growers were selling pineapples for Rs. 2 per piece and after using this technique they are getting Rs. 3-5 per piece,” said Ashok Das, agriculture officer from department of agriculture, Tripura.

Besides doubling the growers income, the fruit can be harvested almost round the year. There is no glut and the prices are stable over a longer period.

The laborers who earlier were poorly paid and had work for only three months in a year are now engaged round the year in the orchards.

To provide growers more market linkage, the North Eastern Regional Agriculture Marketing Corporation (NERAMC) had set up a fruit juice concentration plant, way back in 1988, in Nalkata with an initial capital investment of 30 million rupees.

The aim was to purchase surplus marketable pineapple and other fruits from the farmers. The plant has an installed capacity of 48 metric tons per day.

Productivity of pineapple per hectare in Tripura is 18.73 tonnes, which is higher than the national average of 15.80 tons. (ANI)

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Farmers take up tobacco farming in Uttar Pradesh

January 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Gorakhpur (UP), Jan 29 (ANI): Despite increasingly pervasive anti-tobacco legislation and tax structures to discourage tobacco consumption, farmers in Uttar Pradesh have taken up tobacco cultivation.

Significant numbers of farmers in Gorakhpur region of the state are resorting to tobacco cultivation more vigorously after prices of the commodity-hit spurt at domestic and international markets.

“Cost of tobacco cultivation is 3,000 rupees per acre and the expected profit that it can yield is 75,000 rupees per acre. It can be profitable for us and for the businessmen also. Previously they used to get tobacco from Bihar, now they can directly get it from us,” said Ram Nayan, tobacco grower.

The tobacco traders are also happy at the development as more and morearmers take up tobacco farming in the region.

“We used to import tobacco from Bihar, but now as tobacco production has been started in Gorakhpur itself, we won’t be importing tobacco from other states. By doing so we are actually cutting on the cost of tobacco as we won’t be paying any money to the intermediaries,” said Devilal, tobacco businessmen.

The guarantee of an assured market for their crop has provided a strong incentive to farmers to shift to growing tobacco.

India is one of the largest tobacco producers in the world with Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka having emerged as the main tobacco growing regions in the country. By Brijesh Kumar Singh (ANI)

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Lack of snow affecting apple crop in Himachal Pradesh

January 18, 2009 By Rajesh Leave a Comment

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), Jan.18 (ANI): The lack of rain and snow has spelled doom for apple growers in Himachal Pradesh.

Apple growers in the region are worried that their crop will be severely hit unless the weather gods oblige them with snow or rainfall.

“Lack of snowfall can create problem for apple growers, there was no snowfall in the month of December and January. If snow fall will get more delayed, then farmers will be facing lot of problems, because 1700 hours of chilling conditions that is a prerequisite for the growth of apple wont be fulfilled,” said Lekh Raj, a horticulture professional.

The dry spell has also affected Rabi (winter) crop sowing. Normally the sowing of wheat and other crops is complete by late December.

Waiting for rainfall however, the farmers have not yet sown the wheat seeds. Any further delay will delay the harvest of the crop.

“This time snowfall is delayed. We are facing a lot of problems due to scarcity of snowfall. If snow had fallen on time problem of pests and many other problems could have been resolved very easily,” said Prem, an apple grower.

Inadequate snow fall during winter also leads to water scarcity during summer in the hills, where most sources of water are snow fed.

Agriculture is the mainstay of India’s economy with more than half the population relying on the sector for livelihood. Irregular rainfall, frost, pest infestation, floods cause crops damage worth thousands of rupees every year.(ANI)

Apple is the main fruit crop of Himachal Pradesh and is being grown in nine out of 12 districts. Apple accounts for about 40 percent of the total area under all fruit crop cultivation.

More than 200,000 families in the state are engaged in apple cultivation and 90% of them are small and marginal farmers with an average holding of less than 0.6 hectares.

Besides apples, other fruits like pears, peaches, cherries and plums are the major commercial crops of Himachal Pradesh. (ANI)

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