India: Cherry growing gains popularity in Himachal

Thanks to lower production cost, cherry cultivation is gaining popularity in Himachal Pradesh as a profitable alternative to other cash crops. Prunus avium, our common cherry, is a delicious fruit, rich in protein, sugar and minerals and has more calorific value than apple. It is grown in areas between 2,000 and 2,700 meters above sea-level, requiring 1,000-1,500 hours of chilling period during winters and the climate of Himachal Pradesh is most suited for its growth, pointed out JS Chandel of Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry Nauni, Solan. With over 2,000 hectares of land under cherry cultivation and production of 438 tonne in 2008, Himachal Pradesh that has emerged as the second largest cherry producing state in the country after Jammu and Kashmir. Of the total, about 420 tonne was grown in Shimla region alone in the cherry belts of Rampur, Narkanda, Rohru ,Kandayli, Kotgarh and Kotkhai. One of the reasons for the popularity of cherries is that it provides supplementary income to growers as September is the month for apples while cherry blossoms in May-June. As cherry crop is ready much before its time for apple to blossom, cherry farming provided employment to 16 lakh people in the state last year, in marketing, packaging and direct sale to tourists. Women, particularly in rural Himachal, have taken to cherry farming and marketing to supplement their family earning. The price of cherry at the Chandigarh fruit and vegetables market in Sector 26 is between Rs 250 and Rs 300 for a box of one kilogram. Yudhvir Singh Rana, a cherry grower, told FE, A box of apple weighs around 20 kilograms but a box of cherries weighs around a kilogram, which is easy for women to carry around and sell. One reason you would often find Himachal women standing on either side of the KalkaShimla highway in May and June when educational institutions close for summer, waiting for consumers. Himachal Pradesh produced 698 tonne of cherry in 2007, but its production slumped to 455 tonne in 2008 due to dry weather. This year, cherry production is expected to cross the 700-tonne mark in view of favourable weather conditions.

After olive plantation, the horticulture department is going in a big way to promote date palm cultivation in the arid desert regions of northwestern Rajasthan. "Initially, the cultivation of date palms will be taken up in Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Barmer and later in other districts", said agriculture minister Prabhulal Saini. "The horticulture department will establish modern high-tech date palm farms, producing high quality plants for both national and international market. The date plantation developed under the project will work as a centre of know-how and good agriculture practice of palm production and dissemination centre of pre and post harvest technology", he said. "It has been decided to import secondary hardened tissue culture raised plants suitable for ready transplanting in the field. Accordingly, international bid was invited for import of different varieties of date palm and their management on government farm for a minimum of 100 hectares on a pro rata basis and initially upto 130 hec-tares for a period of four years", he said. The state has the biggest arid zone in the country, constituting nearly 61 % of the total land. The moderate winter temperature and a long, hot and dry summer are favourable for its cultivation, he said. However, the state could not succeed in the cultivation of date palm earlier due to non-availability of quality planting materials. A date palm plant can produce only 10 to 20 off shoots of 8 to 15 kg size during its fourth and tenth year of life and none thereafter. Absence of fast multiplication technique is a major bottle neck in the extension of area under its plantation. Deputy director, horticulture, Sitaram Jat said: "Date Palm has been proved to be a valuable plant in combating desertification. It creates a unique microclimate, which allows other plant species to survive in the mottled sunshine that penetrates through the canopy of the date palms. This shade house effect reduces evapotranspiration rates and increases humidity, which facilitates a secondary food production system by introducing other plant species." The global production of dates fruit is about 5.4 mn metric tonnes per year. The five largest producers are Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, & Iraq. Approximately, 93% of dates harvested in the country are consumed within. Date palm is a traditional crop and in recent decades, has gained acceptance in 40 countries including US, South Africa, and more recently, Australia. Major importers are India, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Malaysia. Date fruits have iron, potassium and calcium content. They are highly delicious and are a rich source of sugar (70-75%). One kg of fresh fruits of date palm gives about 3,000 calories of energy.

The History of Mushroom Cultivation in India

People have been eating mushrooms for a long time. They used to go the forests and other wild places and based on their personal knowledge of edible and poisonous mushrooms they used to collect the edible ones. Even now some people collect wild mushrooms from the forest and eat them. Sometimes they turn out to be poisonous and have harmful effects. In India the Guchhi mushroom was a delicacy known to the people prior to the 1950s. It came mostly from Kashmir. Around the early 1950s the government of Himachal Pradesh appointed Shri S.S.Jain as its first Asstt. Plant Pathologist and Mycologist for the state. He worked in the Wild Flower Hall in Chharabra, Shimla. He was touring the interior areas of Himachal to help the apple orchardists and the farmers control the diseases of apples, other fruits and crops like potatoes and wheat. He noticed the poor hand to mouth condition of the poor farmers in the hilly state of HP. He wanted to help them. While staying with some farmers in interior areas he noticed that there were rotting twigs and branches of apple and other fruit trees and wheat straw in the barn along with cow dung and in the environmental conditions there were a profusion of mushrooms growing in the dark barns. This led him to think of using the waste material with the farmers for growing edible mushrooms. He searched the literature and found that edible mushrooms were being grown in France and Japan. He made a research proposal on growing of edible mushrooms and got the permission for the same from the state government and obtained the mushroom spawn from Japan and France and started a laboratory in Solan, Shimla Hills and started his research experiments on growing edible mushrooms of Agaricus and other species, in laboratory conditions simulating those found in Himachal Pradesh. When he was able to grow the mushrooms successfully on substrate prepared from rotting apple tree twigs and branches, cow dung and wheat straw etc. he published the results through the magazine of the HP state Extension department. These results when publicized and brought to the notice of the farmers and the poor people people in the state led to dissemination of information and spawn to them and mushroom farming started in Himachal Pradesh. The laboratory established by Shri S.S.Jain, the pioneer of mushroom cultivation in India later became the only important centre for training in mushroom cultivation to farmers of Himachal Pradesh and other states as also the mycologists and plant pathologists from all over India. Mr. Seth and others actually worked with Shri Jain and later became important in the area of mushrooms. But it is a fact that Shri SS Jain in Solan successfully completed the first research project in India. Shri Jain left Solan in 1962-63 for Cuttack. Shri S.S.Jain then became the OSD and set up the first campus and office of the HP Agricultural University in Solan and later joined Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack Orissa under the ICAR as a Senior Scientist Plant Pathologist and retired from there in 1978 after having published over a hundred research papers and also having been the Chief Editor of the International Rice journal Oryza. Shri Jain had also done a monographical study of the Stem Rot disease of rice and also discovered the bacteria Xanthomonas oryzae,

which caused the Bacterial Blight disease of rice, and Dr Devdath did his Ph.D on this bacteria and disease. Before Shri Jain expired after prolonged coma in Apollo Hospital Delhi and a small nursing home in Baraut, District Baghpat (Meerut), UP, he had been an award-winning President of the Rotary Club Baraut for his excellent social service work also winning International citation from Rotary. Now the mushroom cultivation in India is something I could not have imagined from what I saw in the laboratory in Solan. I found a huge factory in Maharashtra near Talegaon, Lonavala, where there were huge godowns in a factory where tray upon tray of white beautiful button mushrooms created a sense of wonder and awe in me and I began thinking of the experiments of my father in the small room in Solan way back in the 50s when I was a student and used to walk to his office nearby and have lunch with him in his laboratory. By chance the Mycologist in that factory turned out to be one who had undergone training in the laboratory established by my father in Solan. Mushroom cultivation has become a huge export oriented industry and large foreign exchange earning business and also profitable for small time growers. Many Universities and State departments of agriculture as also private people are giving training in growing mushrooms, which are mostly, exported and also used in many good hotels in a variety of culinary delights.

Tomato Tomato occupies second position amongst occupies second position amongst the vegetable crops in terms of production. the vegetable crops in terms of production. The total production of tomato in the country The total production of tomato in the country in 2005-06 was at around 16-17 MT from an in 2005-06 was at around 16-17 MT from an area of 0.89 M. ha. area of 0.89 M. ha. The main varieties of tomato grown in the The main varieties of tomato grown in the country are Pusa Ruby, Pusa Early Dwarf, country are Pusa Ruby, Pusa Early Dwarf, Arka Abha, Arka Alok, Pant Bahar, Pusa Arka Abha, Arka Alok, Pant Bahar, Pusa hybrid-1, Pusa hybrid-2, MTH-6, Arka hybrid-1, Pusa hybrid-2, MTH-6, Arka Vardan etc. Vardan etc

Prices of onions and tomatoes got slightly lowered in Lahore ahead of the festival of Eid, following the arrival of Indian vegetables in the domestic market. Rates of onions in the city a day before Eid were 60 to 80 rupees per kilogram, which had crossed the mark of 100 rupees per kilogram last week, however, vendors said that their rates came down as big dealers and importers imported huge quantities of both items from India, after observing an increasing trend in their prices in the domestic market, The News reported. A wholesaler in the vegetable market said that a huge quantity was imported from India, as importers were expecting further increase in onion rates during Eid days. Following the import, prices have reduced and they will be in the range of 34 to 40 rupees per kilogram after Eid, he added. Rates of tomatoes in the local market were 50 to 70 rupees per kilogram. The consumption of vegetables increases during Eid days. Similarly, consumption of vegetables used in salad also increases on Eid, so their prices also go up

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