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R. Balaji

Chennai , June 23

APPLE growers in India are learning from their counterparts in Australia and the US to adapt to international production and marketing systems.

The growers not only want to learn the cultivation practices, processing and packaging but also hope to introduce new varieties of apples and other stone fruits such as plums, nectarines and cherries.

According to Mr Tony Portman of the Western Australia's Department of Agriculture, apple growers in Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Arunachal Pradesh are interested in importing rootstocks to grow new varieties of apples and renew their orchards with high yielding and early yielding varieties.

Mr Portman, who is here on a project to train apple growers in Himachal Pradesh on modern cultivation practices, said the growers have seen that apple imports have helped domestic apples — in the sense quality standards and in turn the prices have gone up.

Acknowledging this, an apple importer, Mr Sudhakar Chauhan, whose family also owns apple orchards in Shimla district, Himachal Pradesh, said that contrary to initial expectations some varieties of domestic apples that sold for Rs 600-800 a 20 kg pack in 1999 now sell for about Rs 1,100. Local sellers have seen that the market is willing to pay up to Rs 1,300 for imported apples so why not for domestic varieties that are as good.

All that it takes is a little extra care in grading, sorting and packaging. Imports have helped raise the standards of local industry, he said.

Mr Portman said under an Australian federal government funding, the Crawford Fund, his department would be training Himachal Pradesh apple growers in modern techniques of pruning, crop thinning and other nursery practices.

But a group of farmers who have promoted an NGO are looking further ahead. They want to bring in new varieties, particularly Red Delicious types, Royal Galla and Fuji, which are some of the popular apples in the local market. They are also interested in new crops and varieties such as nectarines, cherries and plums.

Their problem is that the orchards are old and yields are dropping. Also a modern orchard ideally has dwarf varieties that only grow up to 8-10 ft and are easy to manage when it comes to pest treatment and harvesting.

The farmers can plant more trees per acre to increase output. These plants start yielding in 3 years whereas local trees grow up to 30 ft and take up to 10 years to yield to full potential.

Mr Sudhakar pointed out that in 10 years the chances of the orchard being hit by drought or other adverse conditions was higher. But with early yielding trees farmers could hope to manage such conditions better.

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