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Tripura has a bumper pineapple crop

June 11, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Nandan Nagar (Tripura), June 11 (ANI): Tripura has abundant crop of pineapples following two consecutive years of low production.

Both the pineapple lovers and vendors are a delighted lot, as the fruit markets are flooded with pineapples this season.

The growers are also pleased with their crop despite the small size of the fruit due to insufficient rainfall.

“This time the production of pineapple is good, but it would have been better if it rained two-three months back as that would have made the size of the fruit a little bigger. But still it is a good harvest,” said Mohammed Rahim, a fruit vendor.

“Since the production is more and the price is also good, we are making good profit. Moreover, we are also making profit as the government has helped us in staggering and now we can sell our products in the off-season,” said Babul Dey, Pineapple orchard owner.

The yield this year is around 1, 17,531 Metric tonnes as compared to 1, 10,487 531 Metric tonnes last year. (ANI)

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Trial lets farmers take aim at flying foxes

March 30, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Orchardists in the Bathurst, Orange and Cabonne districts will be able to use noise guns until 10:00pm (AEDT) in a two week trial to scare off thousands of flying foxes.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service and three councils have agreed to the two hour extension in a bid to move the flying foxes into native bush areas after their usual roosting period.

Parks ranger Steven Woodhall says residents will need to be prepared to put up with the noise of the guns.

“We’d actually be asking everyone for tolerance and understanding … with this for the next couple of weeks, just to give the orchardists a chance,” he said.

“The crops will be off within three or four weeks and so hopefully there won’t be any need after that for keeping the scare guns going.”

Mr Woodhall says the trial is a final move to save the native foxes from being culled.

“At the moment orchardists are out there at night-time, driving up and down their rows of trees with spotlights on quad bikes and their utes,” he said.

“They’re spending a lot of time out patrolling their orchards at night, disturbing the foxes and trying to move them on.

“We’re just hoping that scare guns, for those orchardists that do have them, will be one extra way to do that.”

Nashdale orchardist and grower representative, Peter Darley, says the foxes are still moving around at 11:00pm and later every night.

He says the two hour extension on the use of scare guns may not make much difference to the thousands of dollars damage he is sustaining every night.

Mr Darley says he has observed the animals coming back to his orchard at 2:00am, after being scared off earlier in the evening.

“Normally where you’d think they’d be gone home to sleep, but ‘cunning as a fox’ they say, they must have thought ‘well when that goes off we’ll come back’,” he said.

“So they must have been hanging in the trees somewhere.

“We are nearly at our wit’s end about what we are going to do.”

But Mr Darley says growers are trying everything to reduce the damage to their fruit and have welcomed the extension.

“It’s an option that we’ve got to use and we will use that along with anyone who has a culling licence of course,” he said.

“It just gives us another option that we can use.”

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Storm study reveals ‘widespread’ orchard damage

March 16, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

A study into storm damage to Victoria’s orchards has found the Goulburn Valley was one of the hardest hit areas.

Strong winds, heavy rain and hail lashed the Shepparton area on March 7.

The study found fruit caught in the hail storms was bruised, pierced or smashed, but hail nets saved many crops.

John Wilson from Fruit Growers Victoria says the damage bill is expected to be up to $15 million.

“They were very widespread, about 20 per cent of Victoria’s orchards were affected in some degree, some of them very minor but there were several orchards that were severely damaged by the storms with a large loss of fruit,” he said.

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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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J and K HC orders exhumation of Shopian rape victims bodies

July 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Srinagar July 4 (ANI): The Jammu and Kashmir High Court today directed state police to exhume the bodies of the victims of rape and murder in Shopian for fresh post mortem.

The court also ordered that no person, including security personnel could leave Shopian without special permission. The order is binding on personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force and the Jammu and Kashmir State Police.

A two-judge division bench of the J and K High Court, comprising Chief Justice Barin Gosh and Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, issued the orders after hearing a PIL filed by the Kashmir Bar Association.

However, the court said the consent of the victims’ family is required before the bodies could be exhumed.

The Kashmir Valley has witnessed protests following discovery of the bodies of 17-year-old Asiya and her pregnant 22-year-old sister-in-law Nelofar in a stream on May 30 after they went missing from their orchard on the previous day. Amid massive demonstrations across the Valley, police registered a case of rape and murder. They have not named any suspects.

The same bench of the J and K high Court on Friday ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Inspector General of Police Farooq Ahmed, to interrogate all suspended officials and if necessary to conduct a narco analyses test of these officials.

The Jammu and Kashmir Government suspended the then district police chief of Shopian Javed Iqbal Mattoo, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Rohit Baskotra, Station House Officer (SHO) Shafeeq Ahmad, Sub-Inspector Qazi Abdul Karim and Javed Iqbal Hafiz, scientific officer forensic science laboratory following recommendations made by the Justice Muzaffar Jan Commission. (ANI)

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Punjab farmers fear low produce due to delayed monsoon

June 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Abohar (Punjab), June 27 (ANI): Farmers in Punjab are worried a lot, as they fear low produce due to delayed monsoon.

With only 40 percent of farmland irrigated, most of small farmers rely on the monsoon to water their crops.

“The orchards have wilted due to delay in rains. I fear that the fruits will fall prematurely if this condition persists for next 10-15 days. The delay in monsoons will not only affect the orchard owners but all other people employed in the orchards,” said Prabhu Dayal, an orchard owner.

However, weather officials say that favourable conditions for monsoons are developing which would bring respite to all.

“Rains are unlikely to happen in next one or two days. However, favourable conditions are developing for monsoons due to moisture incursion from Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. People will also find respite from heat wave in coming days,” said Udayveer Singh, incharge weather department.

The monsoon is crucial for summer-sown crops such as rice, soybean, sugarcane and cotton. With only 40 percent of farmland irrigated, most of countries small farmers rely on the monsoon to water their crops.

The Meteorological Department has said that the total rainfall from the crucial June-September monsoon would be 93 percent of the long-term average, coming in below normal for the first time in four years. (ANI)

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Popular mango varieties of Malihabad may no more be available

May 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Malihabad, May 30(ANI): Popular varieties of mangoes available in Uttar Pradesh’s Malihabad may soon become a thing of the past, as a growing number of orchard owners are drawn to profitable varieties of mangoes.

The orchard owners say they are compelled to concentrate on just a few varieties due to market demand.

There was a time when about 700 varieties of mangoes were available in Malihabad. They have reduced to a few varieties now a days.

Veteran mango cultivator fear that mango varieties like Taimoorlang, Husnaara, Aabehayat and Zawahiri may soon be wiped out, since most of the mango growers are not focusing on these varieties.

He says that some of the varieties are already unavailable in the market.

“The reason for certain mango varieties facing extinction threat is the fact that mangoes like Dussheri, Chosa, Lucknowi have taken over the market in a big manner. Mango growers get a good price for these varieties. However, mango varieties that are facing extinction are not able to make their presence felt in the market as there are few trees grown of these varieties,” Haji Kalimullah Khan, a veteran mango cultivator said. (ANI)

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Mango growers complain a bad season this year

May 24, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Pune, May 24 (ANI): Following a low mango production and poor sales, the mango growers and traders in Maharashtra are a disappointed lot this year.

Vagaries of weather gods such as untimely rains and odd climatic conditions in the mango growing regions of Maharashtra have badly affected the orchard owners and other growers.

Sales have hit the nadir with even local customers hesitating to buy mangoes citing heavy prices being the reason.

In Pune, traders complained to have suffered losses of around rupees five to six million rupees (105,898 to 127,078 US dollars).

Reportedly, the mango production is below than average this year and in turn the shortage of mangoes in the market has shot up the prices.

“As compared to last year, it was less production this year. There were lesser goods in the market yard and also people are not buying mangoes much this year,” said Shivalal Bhosle, President Market Yard Merchants Association, Pune.

Besides,lovers of the delicious fruit complained that since the beginning of the mango season the prices of the mangoes have not come down.

“Prices of the mangoes are still high. The mango season is from April till May end but through out the season prices of mangoes were same,” said Sujit, a mango lover.

Many customers also rue the fact that several varieties of mangoes are yet to reach the market whereas the season is all set to end.

Traders also fear that with the beginning of the monsoon early this year, it will further affect sales of mangoes in the market. (ANI)

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Thunderstorm in Bijnor damages raw mango crop

May 22, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Bijnor (Uttar Pradesh), May 22 (ANI): A thunderstorm of high intensity in Bijnor has destroys raw mango crop in the orchards.

The mango growers, who were anticipating big profits from a bumper crop, are now counting their losses.

“We had to suffer high losses due to the thunderstorm that occurred. We are left with 30-35 per cent of the crop. Even if we try to sell this crop, we will be able to sell it for a meagre Rs. 2-2.50 per kg price,” said Brahampal Singh, manager of a mango orchard.

However, district officials claim the loss to be relatively less.

“It is natural that heavy losses were incurred due to the thunderstorm. In the initial phase, we estimate these losses to be 10 per cent,” said Pooja, district farm official, Bijnor.

The entire Northern Indian belt has been experiencing high velocity thunderstorms for the last two to three days. By Sarfaraz Ahmed (ANI)

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Dussehri mangoes taste ‘sour’ in Uttar Pradesh

May 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Malihabad (Uttar Pradesh), May 14 (ANI): Farmers of Malihabad of Uttar Pradesh are worried as mango production has hit a record low due to bad weather and pest attacks.

Malihabad, which is globally acclaimed for producing the yummy and exotic varieties of Dussehri, is expected to produce merely 10,000 MT-compared to 29,000 MT last year.

Mango, often known as the ‘King of Fruits’, requires lot of care and investment and many farmers borrow money on interest from local sources and private financers.

With low production this year, the clouds of uncertain future surrounded the farmers of Malihabad, where 85 per cent of the population are mango growers.

“We borrowed money for the upkeep of this orchard thinking that we would return after selling our produce. Now the production is very meager. We don’t know how we would return our borrowed money and meet our expenses,” said Madhu Rani, a mango grower.

Indian mangoes, which account for 60 per cent of the world’s production, are in great demand. But exporters are yet to tap the global market potential. India produces mangoes worth over 160 million dollars a year.

“Here 90 per cent of orchards are unable even to return our investment. The production is low. I fear that farmers may follow the steps of cotton farmers,” said Kalimullah Khan, another mango grower.

It may be recalled that across India’s sprawling western and southern plateau, where the black soil has been most favourable for cotton, more than 3,600 farmers were driven to suicide after heavy losses. By Kamna Mathur (ANI)

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J-K govt. introduces biodegradable bags to reduce pollution level

April 24, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Srinagar, Apr 24 (ANI): The Jammu and Kashmir horticulture department has introduced biodegradable bags for farmers in the Kashmir Valley to reduce pollution levels.he initiative aims at making the orchards and agricultural lands pollution free. The department is distributing these eco- friendly bags among farmers and orchard workers, so that they can realize its benefits and use them more often.

“These bags get degradable in the soil within a period of six months and keep the environment healthy and pollution-free. It also acts as manure for the plant,” said Mukhtar Ahmad, an orchard farmer.

Ahmad also said that with the help of these bags, farmers could do plantation in any season.iodegradable plastics can decompose in the natural environment. During the biodegradation process the bag in itself enhances the biodegradation of the waste it contains.Basically these bags are organic. Once we transplant a plant along with this Bioplastic bag, within a period of six months these bags will degrade in the ground by itself,” said M. S. Qasba, Director of Department of Horticulture.

The colour of biodegradable bags is white. These bags look like tissue papers. They are manufactured in Italy and have a capacity to carry soil of 1-2 kg for the purpose of plantation. ANI)

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The Manor in Holmby Hills is America’s most highly priced estate

March 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Mar 28 (ANI): The Manor, situated in the exclusive Holmby Hills neighbourhood, has been put on the market for a whopping 150 million dollars, making it the highest asking price in America.

The French chateau-style mansion once belonged to film and television producer Aaron Spelling, and now his widow Candy Spelling has put it on the market.

The mansion has 5,248 sq m of space on more than 1.86ha, and is the largest home in Los Angeles County.

It has as neighbours the Los Angeles Country Club and the Playboy Mansion.

“Everything there is glamorous, and is luxurious and it’s really great scale,” the Daily Telegraph quoted Sally Forster Jones, an agent with Coldwell Banker Previews International in Los Angeles, which is co-listing the property, as saying.

“There really is nothing to compare it to,” she said.

Jones revealed that the three-storey mansion, built in 1991, is gated and features a winding driveway that leads up to the three-storey house, which includes ceilings that reach up to 9 metres high.

The property boasts a bowling alley, wine cellar, wine tasting room, gift-wrapping room, a humidity-controlled silver storage room, China room, library, gym and media room, among many others.

The screening room is one of Spelling’s favourites, and it features a movie projection system that automatically comes up from the floor at the same time that shades extend over the windows.

The Spellings also finished the 5,181 sq m attic that includes a barber shop and beauty salon, and the home also includes a wing for service staff, including a kitchen and seven bedrooms, and five fireplaces and four wet bars.

Outside the house are a tennis court, fountains, a waterfall, a pool and spa, a reflection pool and a pool house with a kitchen, and 16 carports.

The estate also boasts an 18th Century-style garden, a rooftop rose garden and a citrus orchard, and the property includes a winding motor court with space for more than 100 cars. (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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Now, plants can SMS when they’re thirsty!

March 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, March 18 (ANI): Israeli scientists have developed a new device enables plants to send a text message when they need a drink.

According to a report by Fox News, Israel Agricultural Ministry plant physiologist Dr. Eran Raveh and his earth-scientist partner Dr. Arie Nadler spent seven years perfecting the hammer-shaped sensor that gauges moisture levels in plants and trees and sends real-time alerts to mobile phones or computers when water levels are low.

“The idea behind creating the sensor was to cut irrigation costs by up to 50 percent,” Raveh told Fox News.
The sensor helps cut water usage and avoid unnecessary and damaging over-irrigation by providing accurate water-level feedback.
“With this sensor, the level of irrigation, and primarily its timing, will be controlled by the farmers themselves,” Nadler said.
According to the scientists, farmers check no fewer than 26 points in soil surrounding a plant to monitor and gauge moisture levels.
The sensor, operating on an electrical conductivity principal, continuously measures and collects water-level data via a series of metallic nails inserted into plant stems.
When water levels drop, electric activity halts, and a text message or e-mail automatically goes out to someone who can turn on the spigot.
The notification mode works on a wireless principal similar to walkie-talkie communication.

Sensors placed in an orchard or nursery are connected to a central device within a home or nerve center in a grove, and from that point, messages are transferred out to the end user’s mobile phone or computer.
“What’s great about our sensor is that it’s highly accurate without being prohibitively expensive,” Raveh explained.

At 250 dollars for a 5,000-tree orchard – versus 12,000 dollars for a similar high-tech probe – the Israeli scientists say price and accuracy set them apart.
Domestic consumers are eager to try out the sensor, saying it will be a welcome addition in the home. Major-market agriculturalists are also eyeing the gadget for future implementation.

“There is certainly interest in this proposed methodology,” Dr. Donald Suarez, director of the USDA Agricultural Research Salinity Laboratory in Riverside, California, told Fox News.

“The technology in general of measuring stem flow is emerging, and it hasn’t been widely adopted by farmers or growers yet,” he added.
But, with the combined incentives of reduced cost and hi-tech notification systems, the Israeli scientists are looking to find mass appeal.(ANI)

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Lebanese farmers accuse Israelis of flooding their land

March 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Beirut – Lebanese farmers on Tuesday accused Israel of deliberately flooding their land with excess rainwater from an Israeli orchard across the border, according to media reports.

Voice of Lebanon radio reported that the water flooded fields near the southern town of Mais al-Jabal on Tuesday, ruining crops and properties.

Lebanese farmers who called on the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) to launch an investigation, according to the report.

An army source in southern Lebanon said the army and UNIFIL had dispatched teams to look into the claims.

Farmers in the area charged that the flooding was part of a systematic practice by Israeli authorities to turn the highly-fertile land into swamps by channelling rainwater into the fields via trenches, which the say were dug for that purpose.

The farmers said the army and UNIFIL have in the past intervened to protect crops. (dpa)

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Himachal Pradesh to grow American apple trees

February 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Shimla, Feb 20 9ANI): Himachal Pradesh is planning grow apple varieties imported from the United States. The state horticulture department is distributing root stock plants to orchard owners for a better yield of the fruit in the state.

Horticulture department officials said the American varieties would bring an apple revolution in the state as these varieties are disease resistant and have good yield of apples on maturity.

“As per our technical mission we are giving the farmers the new apple stems which have a good yield, are diseases resistant and meet international standards in quality,” said Narendra Bragta, horticulture minister.

Nearly seventeen thousand American apple plants like Scarlet spur, Oregon spur, Gale Gala, golden delicious, Gibson golden, early red and B-7-11 have been distributed among the farmers so far.

“We have around 8-9 varieties of the plants here from the United States. They are being distributed to the people and some of the varieties include Gale Gala and B-7-11, which is said to be successful at the height of 4500-5500 feet above the sea level. There is a lot of rush going on to get these varieties but only time will tell if they succeed in the Indian conditions,” said Chaman, a farmer.

About 180,000 hectares of land is under apple cultivation in Himachal Pradesh with an average yield is 5.50 metric tonnes per hectare.

Apple fruit being the important cash crop of Shimla, Sirmaur,Kullu, Chamba, Kinnaur and Mandi districts. By Hemant Chauhan (ANI)

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Muslim TV channel founder arrested for wife’s beheading

February 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New York, Feb. 15 (ANI): The founder of a New York based Muslim TV channel, which was launched in order to counter the violent images of Muslims worldwide, has been arrested for his wife’s brutal murder.

Forty-four year old Muzzammil Hassan has been charged with second-degree murder after his wife’s beheaded body was found at Bridges TV office in a village of Orchard Park.

On Thursday, Hassan came to Orchard Park Police Headquarters saying that his wife was dead. Hassan told police that his wife was at the television station, Buffalo News reports.

As detectives continued to search for the murder weapon on Friday, they refused to divulge further details on the Aasiya Z. Hassan’s murder case.

However, friends of the couple expressed deep shock over the incident.

“I am totally stunned. They were really more than married – they encouraged each other in everything,” said Samira Khatib, a friend of the couple.

“It was Aasiya Hassan who encouraged her businessman husband to launch the cable channel. Aasiya was such a lovely person,” she added.

In a bid to dispel stereotypes of Muslims as terrorists, Hassan launched the cable TV channel in 2004, which was under financial strain, said Khalid J. Qazi, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Western New York.

But he didn’t see signs of that business strain spilling over into the Hassan marriage.

“I cannot believe it. I cannot get a handle on this,” Qazi said.

Aasiya Hassan had filed for divorce and obtained an order of protection on February 6, barring her husband from their home in Orchard Park, police said.

“There had been problems before. There had been prior incidents of physical abuse,” said Corey Hogan, Aasiya Hassan’s lawyer said.

Hogan said discussions were being held about continuing arrangements for the couple’s two children, ages four and six, and two older children, ages 17 and 18, from Muzzammil Hassan’s previous marriage. (ANI)

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