During a two-day National Apple Festival in Dehradun, it was revealed that over 60% of apple orchards in India are producing inferior quality fruit and need to be replaced. A number of experts said that many of the apple trees in the country have grown too old to produce good quality fruit which is adversely impacting apple production.
"We estimate that almost 400,000 hectares of land out of a total of 650,000 hectares covered by apple orchards in the country, is populated by senile trees. This is leading to a year-on-year reduction in our apple production over the last decade," said Ravindra Chauhan, president of the Apple Growers' Association of India.
In 2013, a scheme was started by the Union government which was intended to motivate farmers to replace old trees with new ones by giving them an incentive. However, the amount of Rs 351 per tree that was offered to uproot an old tree to plant a fresh one was perceived as "too little" by many farmers, as a result of which the scheme did not have many takers.
Experts said that if the government was serious about improving apple quality and quantity in the country, it should initiate a massive drive to uproot all apple trees which were over 50 years old.
"Apple production can multiply within three years of uprooting all the old trees since the new variety of plants start fruiting from the third year of plantation. However, the government has to support the farmers in the gestation period by providing them with alternative sources of livelihood," said an expert.
Estimates are that every year, around 120 to 150 million apple boxes (each box has 20kg apples) are supplied from various fruit markets across the country. However, this year, the production has severely fallen - estimates peg the total supply to be around 100 to 130 million boxes - which is attributed to erratic weather and senile trees.
(1 Indian Rupee=0.015USD)
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
