The cultivation of guava in and around the city has seen a multifold increase with the introduction of an Israeli technique of orchard farming.
District horticulture officer Pankaj Kumar Shukla spoke about the pilot project which has been successfully implemented in Maharashtra. It was introduced in some of the villages of Allahabad district in 2008.
“The technique is being practiced in Bhajhan Mitran village of Saidabad block, Korapur village of Phulpur block and some villages of Koraon and Jasra blocks,” he said. In all, around 40 farmers of these blocks have planted the orchards on a total area of over 40 hectares.
This is basically a ‘dense planting technique’ of Israel and America which needs lesser land as compared to traditional farming.
At present, around 277 saplings are planted per hectare whereas farmers will now plant 400 plants in the same size of land, he said. In this, ‘high density’ farming, the farmer keeps a distance of 4 feet between two saplings, far much less as compared to traditional farming.
“We have also introduced the concept of ‘ultra high density’ cropping in company garden wherein the farmers keep spacing of 3 feet by 1.5 feet between two sapling and we assure that the plant remains at a size of 60 cm, for which pruning is done from time to time,” said Shukla. When the plant reaches 60-cm high, pruning is done to maintain the height at the desired level.
The plant starts bearing fruit after the initial first years and although it bears fruits three times a year, fruits of winters are allowed to ripe and rest are plucked away. Since every plant yields around ten kilo of guava, per season, the total yield per hectare reaches 50 metric tonnes.
Although bio-fertilizers and vermin-compost are beneficial, plastic mulching, a technology in which the surface between two plant is covered with black polythene for protecting nutrients, is also used.
The technology introduced by Central Institute of Sub-tropical Horticulture (CISH), Lucknow, needs drip irrigation because of which the water requirement per plant decreases upto 60%.
Farmers would use local breeds like Safeda, Sangam, Lalit and Ellahabadi Surkha. Farmers of Saidabad and Dhanupur are being motivated. Government is providing subsidy on 277 saplings, efforts are on to increase it for more, he said.
Source: Times of India