Thaindian News

Shimla, Jan 25 (IANS) Bountiful snowfall in Himachal Pradesh, the country’s prominent apple basket, has brought cheer to growers after a season of dismal production. Good snow at this point of time means a bumper crop in the coming season.

“My orchard is covered under three feet of snow. This is an encouraging sign of bumper production,” Gopal Mehta, a prominent apple grower of Kothgarh village in Shimla district, told IANS.

He said the entire apple belt in the area had been experiencing regular spells of snow since Jan 4.

“Snow is white manure for the crop. More snow means healthier and disease-free crop. Moreover, it sustains the required level of moisture in the soil during summer,” said Kanwar Dayal Krishan Singh of Kotkhai, another prominent apple belt in upper Shimla.

Kothgarh and Kotkhai are known for producing the Royal Delicious, Red Delicious and Rich-a-Red varieties of apples.

The fruit economy of the state involves around Rs.2,000 crore ($430 million) per year and is flourishing mainly in Shimla, Kullu, Mandi, Lahaul and Spiti, Kinnaur and Chamba districts.

S.P. Bhardwaj, a former joint director at the Solan-based Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, said the apple crop right now is in a dormant stage.

“During dormancy, the crop requires 1,000 to 1,600 hours of chilling. More than 1,100 hours have been over and the prevailing weather is quite congenial (for the crop),” he said.

According to him, the apple varieties planted in the state can tolerate a minimum temperature of up to 20 degrees Celsius below freezing point.

He said snow has sufficiently increased the moisture content in the soil that will help the plant get nutrients during summer.

M.S. Mankotia, an expert at the university’s regional horticulture centre in Mashobra near here, said the apple crop will come out of dormancy at the end of March. Then it will enter the pink bud stage - a period when flowering begins.

“At this stage it’s difficult to say whether the next crop will be bumper or not. If the weather remains favourable till harvesting, then we can hope to get a good harvest,” he added.

The extended winter last time, when the apple crop was in blooming stage and hailstorms at the time the crop was maturing severely hit its production, horticulture officials said.

The overall apple production in the state in 2011 was 14 million boxes of 20 kg each, just 30 percent of the bumper harvest of 44.6 million boxes in 2010.

The Met office here said it has been an extremely wet January this year with the entire state, especially the higher reaches, receiving snow far above average.

“The overall precipitation, both solid and liquid, in the state during Jan 1-18 was 107 mm against the normal of 43.5 mm, meaning an excess of 146 percent,” said meteorological office Director Manmohan Singh.

Himachal Pradesh is one of India’s top apple-producing regions, with more than 90 percent of the produce going to the domestic market.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)