Kinnow emerged steadily as major fruit crop In Punjab
Author(s): City Air NewsChandigarh, December 6, 2015: Aiming crop diversification, Punjab Horticulture department has been successful in bringing 77751hectares of an area under fruit plantation in the state. The total fruit yield has...
cityairnews
Dec 6, 2015 10:30
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Chandigarh, December 6, 2015: Aiming crop diversification, Punjab Horticulture department has been successful in bringing 77751hectares of an area under fruit plantation in the state. The total fruit yield has been 21153 kg/hect and the total production including that of kinnow, sweet orange, lime lemon, mango, litchi, guava, pear, peach, plum, grapes, ber, amla ,banana and others is 16,44,641 metric tonnes, informed a spokesman from Punjab Horticulture department.
Due to higher and regular yield, Kinnow has emerged steadily as major fruit crop and due to its higher juice percentage, bright golden yellow colour, longer shelf life and market span and lately found anticancerous properties of Limonin present in Kinnow, it is gaining popularity in distant domestic markets. Kinnow has the maximum share in total fruit production with 48182 hectares under cultivation, 23009 kg/hect yield and 1108618 MT of production. This is followed by Mango with 6752 hectares under plantation with 16800 kg/hect yield and 113435 MT of production in the State, informed the spokesman.
Detailing the thrust points for development of horticulture, he said that the department aims at improving productivity and quality of horticultural crops, transfer of improved technology and its adoption, improving supply of quality planting material, developing infrastructure for post harvest handling and processing, expansion of area under horticulture crops and promoting domestic and export marketing of horticultural crops.
He said that to achieve these goals Punjab Government has established citrus estates and facilities such as leaf and soil testing laboratory, latest spraying and pruning equipments etc. are being provided to the farmers which help in reducing the cost of production. A centre of excellence for fruits (citrus) has been established with the assistance of national horticulture mission under Indo-Israel Project. In this centre various varieties of citrus are evaluated and after evaluation quality nursery plants of these fruits are made available to the farmers.
Date:
Sunday, December 6, 2015
