E-Paper
Warm winters, haphazard rain bite into Himachal’s apple production
Apple needs about 200-300 chilling hours before the flowering stage. But due to lack of snow, especially in low-altitude areas of Himachal, chilling hours were not completed. In the month of February when the crop needed a good snow, the state experienced a drought-like situation. Unusually warm winters and a haphazard rain pattern have brought down Himachal’s apple production this year.
Unusually warm winters and a haphazard rain pattern have brought down Himachal’s apple production this year. Only about 1.77 crore apple boxes have reached the markets this year as compared to 3.36 crore boxes last year, data from the state agriculture department revealed.
As per experts, the weather has not been conducive for apple production since the beginning of the year.
Apple needs about 200-300 chilling hours before the flowering stage. But due to lack of snow, especially in low-altitude areas, chilling hours were not completed. In the month of February when the crop needed a good snow, the state experienced a drought-like situation. The flowering stage, which starts in March and continues through April, was also severely impacted as the state recorded long spells of rain through this time. The showers also brought down the temperature to 8°C while the temperature requirement in flowering season is 15°C. This ultimately affected the pollination and fruit setting.
SP Bhardwaj, former associate director at Dr YS Parmar University of horticulture and forestry, said, “Due to the high moisture content in soil and little exposure to sunlight, fungal diseases also broke out, affecting the quality of fruit. Also, due to the rain, farmers didn’t get enough window to spray fungicides.”
In some areas, prolonged rain spells also led to panic plucking, which affected the quality of apples.
Ashutosh Chauhan, vice-president of the progressive apple grower association, said, “From 2010, apple production in Himachal is on the decline even as the area under apple crop has increased manyfold over the years. The impact of climate change on apple production is apparent. The government must undertake a study to access regions suitable for apple production.”
New system to curb fleecing of apple growers
In a significant development this season, the state introduced a new system for selling apples based on weight. This had a positive impact on the income of apple growers as they received better prices for their produce. At Delhi’s Azadpur Mandi, one of the largest fruit and vegetable wholesale markets in the country, the average rate of a 24kg box of Royal Apples was ₹2,016. This marks an improvement compared to the average price of ₹1,920 in 2021 and ₹1,440 in 2022 for the variety.
Conversely, Red Gold saw a significant drop in wholesale prices in Azadpur Mandi this year. In 2021, a 24 kg box of Red Gold apples was fetching ₹960 on average. However, in 2022, the price dropped to ₹1,320, and this year, the average price further decreased to ₹864.
Shimla-Kinnaur mandi leads with record turnover of 1.12 crore apples
The Shimla-Kinnaur mandi has emerged the frontrunner in this year’s apple season, setting a record with the highest turnover of apples. So far, 1.12 crore apple boxes have been traded in Shimla-Kinnaur mandi alone.
Apart from this, some areas in Kinnaur are yet to harvest a small quantity of apples.
The Solan market recorded the sale of 22.3 lakh apple boxes, while Mandi traded 22 lakh apple boxes. Chamba sold over 92,000 apple boxes, Kangra accounted for 16,839 boxes, Una 10,231, Bilaspur 42,231, Hamirpur 15,103 among others.
Approximately, 8.8 lakh boxes were sold in APMC (agricultural produce market committee) mandis within Himachal while 8.7 lakh boxes were sold in markets outside the state and beyond the purview of APMC mandis.
