Apple drop losses mount in Himachal

Sunday September 4, 10:02 AM
By Baldev S. Chauhan, Indo-Asian News Service

Rohru (Himachal Pradesh), Sep 4 (IANS) Large-scale dropping of apples
from tall trees is causing huge losses and puzzling both farmers and
experts in Himachal Pradesh.

The over three-month-long apple harvest has entered its second phase
and peak time. At over Rs.1,000 crore (Rs.10 billion), the fruit
accounts for the largest farm crop in the hill state.


'But this year many farmers in the sprawling apple belt can only
watch in vain as luscious apples in large quantities drop from trees
to be damaged on the hard ground,' said Lekh Raj Chauhan, president
of the Himachal apple growers' association.


'A majority of the farmers are suffering this problem of unnatural
shedding of the fruit, and the estimated loss could be huge,' Chauhan
told IANS at Rohru, the apple heartland of the hill state.


'The state has a horticulture university and a highly staffed
department of horticulture but no one has found a solution to this
strange phenomenon for the last two months,' he explained.


Farmers say minor shedding of ripe fruit does take place each year
but this year the extent is much higher. Even raw (unripe) apples are
falling.


'If the fruit is picked direct from the tree it can remain fresh for
several months as apple has a long shelf life. But if it drops to the
ground it gets bruised and damaged resulting in early rotting. Such
fruit fetches a very low price in the market,' said another farmer.


'The dropped fruit is so poor in quality that it has to be consumed
immediately. While 20 kg of fresh and undamaged apple currently
fetches Rs.400-700 in Delhi, the bruised apple fetches less than a
fifth of this price,' he said.


Although experts have given no scientific explanation, farmers say
this could be due to either a fungal disease that spread in early
July when the state was lashed by extremely heavy monsoon showers.
Himachal Pradesh witnessed the wettest July in many years.


But others have a different explanation.


'I think the fruit shedding is taking place due to heavy use of
chemical fertiliser, pesticides and fungicides,' said Chauhan.


'This is due to the advice given by the hoticulture department and
the horticulture university at Solan. Are farmers paying the price
for being greedy?'


Apple is grown in the mid hills of the state in Shimla, Kullu and
Kinnaur and parts of Solan, Sirmaur, Mandi and Chamba and Lahaul
Spiti districts.


Last year the state recorded an all time high apple production of
525,000 tonnes. This year also a good yield is expected.


'The apple season is at its peak and each day around 800 to 900
trucks are leaving the state to markets across the country,' said
Horticulture Minister Singhi Ram.


'About 22,000 trucks have left the state since the harvest began in
mid-July,' he said.


Along with neighbouring Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh accounts
for almost the entire apple production of India.