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Karnataka orange cultivation dips; State and horti board organise expo
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Saturday, 05 January, 2013, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
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fiogf49gjkf0d Karnataka’s Department of Horticulture is now working to increase the orange cultivation in the state following a major reduction by almost 60 per cent. The main reason for the decline of orange was that most of the orchards were affected with a citrus greening disease. In an effort to encourage the cultivation and consumption, the department along with the National Board of Horticulture organised a three-day inter-state orange expo at Lalbagh in Bengaluru, which kicked off on January 4, 2013 and will continue till January 6, 2013.
Although the records on orange cultivation indicate that it is spread over 12,000 hectares, the fact is that it is now only 5,000 hectares. The orange expo will create a platform to market with the participation of farmers. There has been a favourable response for the exposition which has attracted farmers from districts of Karnataka, Punjab, Maharashtra, the North-east, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, said S V Hittalmani, additional director, fruits, Karnataka Department of Horticulture.
“In Karnataka, Kodagu, the erstwhile Coorg, Hassan and Chikmagalur districts are hubs for orange cultivation. In Kodagu district, the total land covered with orange orchards has reduced by almost 2,500 hectares. There is a revival in the orange output reported as growers are cultivating it as a second crop and also using a sapling graft method,” the additional director of fruits said.
“In order to revive the orange cultivation, based on research, the department of horticulture is now planning to promote the cultivation of Kinnow varieties of orange in arid districts of Bellary, Koppal, Gulbarga and Raichur in north Karnataka. The variety is known to give good yield to the farmers. Moreover, the variety is highly popular because it can be grown in natural conditions giving the state an advantage to cultivate in other districts too,” Hittalmani said.
“The orange yield for 2012-2013 is estimated to be 50,000 tonnes as against 45,000 in 2011-2012. The department is now encouraging the farmers to earn anywhere between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 3 lakh from orange cultivation only because the yield price in the last few years has been lucrative,” he said.
According to experts from the Indian Institute of Horticulture, “Coorg Mandarin oranges which has a GI (Geographical Indication) registration vanished from the orchards because it was affected by disease and replaced by Nagpur oranges. Now we need to take stock of this citrus fruit by creating awareness on the lucrative prospects by offering modern methods of cultivation, protection during post-harvest phase, processing technology and marketing avenues.”
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