Nauni/Solan: The Department of Fruit Science of Dr. YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni organized Apple Day cum Kisan Mela at the university campus. The event was attended by over 200 apple growers from different clusters of eight districts of the state formed under the World Bank-funded Himachal Pradesh Horticulture Development Project (HP HDP) along with non-cluster farmers and officers from the state horticulture department.
The idea behind the event was to apprise and address the queries of farmers on high-density apple plantations. Professor Rajeshwar Singh Chandel, Vice-Chancellor of the University was the Chief Guest on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Professor Chandel complimented the university for establishing world-class research laboratories and said that the joint efforts of scientists have ensured 42 MT productivity in four-year high-density plantations which is a substantial jump over the present productivity. He asked the scientists to work towards understanding and eliminating the gaps between the productivity achieved by the farmers and the university’s productivity.
He urged the scientists to study and establish a cost-benefit ratio including the impact on soil and water, of raising plantations using different agricultural techniques. He also suggested that the different plantation models for small and medium farmers must also be established. Professor Chandel requested the farmers to share their best practices with the scientists so that these could be studied and validated by the university for use by the farming community.
A field visit to the high-density apple plantations raised in the year 2016 was also held. Various varieties like Jeromine, Red Velox, Red Cap Valtod, Scarlet Spur-II, Super Chief, Gale Gala, Redlum Gala and Auvil Early Fuji grafted on M9 and MM106 rootstocks have been planted in different spacing and training systems.
