‘Can yield three times more than traditional varieties’
Pampore: Director Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture (CITH) Mahendra Kumar Verma visited almond orchards at Chandhara village of Pampore, where he interacted with farmers.
Verma was accompanied by Sajad Ul Nabi, scientist, plant pathology ICAR CITH, Kissan Advisory Board member, Irshad Ahmad Dar and other farmers. He also interacted with a progressive almond farmer Abdul Aziz.
Later, the Director CITH visited the high and medium-density apple orchards in Pulwama. He also visited Shopian to see the installed decision support system at the farmers’ fields which predicts pest, disease and nutritional deficiencies along with their timely management.
The Director CITH appealed to farmers for growing new varieties of almonds to revive its cultivation. He assured them of all support.
“Pampore, Pulwama and Budgam have Karewa land where people used to grow almonds but their quality was not as good,” Verma told Kashmir Reader, adding that they carried a lot of research and introduced new varieties.
He said that the new varieties were given to some farmers like Abdul Aziz of Chandhara. “The new varieties in Abdul Aziz’s orchard yield high-quality almonds and I visited here to have a look at the orchard,” he said, adding that other farmers will also be motivated after learning about Aziz’s orchard.
He said the main aim of his visit is to help farmers in reviving almond cultivation with new varieties. With new varieties like Makhdoom, Waris, Shalimar, Non-Paeril, and IXL, the Director said he is confident of reviving almond cultivation and its extension to new areas.
“The productivity is more than three times than that with traditional varieties,” he said, adding that the interesting thing about Aziz’s orchard is that he has also cultivated saffron on it. “We are always there to help farmers who want to plant new high-density varieties,” the Director said.
Abdul Aziz Ganie told Kashmir Reader that he planted the new varieties of almond trees and reaped good benefits. “The new varieties yield more as compared to old ones,” he said, adding that last year 50 trees yielded 100 kilograms.
He said these have the potential of yielding 300 kilograms and each kilogram sells at rupees 600. “I appeal to other farmers to plant these new varieties,” he said. “In fact, I am getting calls from farmers who want to know about the new varieties.”