Quality must for Kangra tea survival
Brajinder Singh
The Kangra valley known for its scenic beauty since centuries was exposed to the world with the introduction of the flavoury Camellia tea variety some time in 1849 by Dr Jameson, the then Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens, North West Provinces. The veil of tea gardens on the soils of the Kangra valley has added to its tantalising charms. The Kangra flavoury tea acclaimed awards in the world market during the end of the 19th century.

Post-harvest handling of vegetables
A. Manu Parmar and Sandeep Chopra
In vegetables, owing to perishable nature, it is quite necessary to adopt an appropriate integrated, low cost system of post-harvest technology right from the pre-harvest stage till the produce reaches the consumer. Various preharvest factors like cultural practices, including irrigation, application of fertiliser and chemical use, soil management, time of sowing, selection of appropriate cultivar and environmental factors, including temperature, light, rainfall, high velocity of wind influence the storage life and processing qualities of vegetables.

PAU kisan melas in March

Farm operations for Feb

Floriculture — a promising forex earner
Manish Kapoor

Man has traditionally used flowers for expressing or exhibiting his innermost feelings to God and deities or presenting to the beloved ones or complimenting any one or versifying any conceivable emotion. Floriculture is an ancient farm activity with immense potential for generating remunerative self-employment among small and marginal farmers. Besides earning the much-needed foreign exchange, it is getting due attraction these days and the floriculture is one of the few industries with very bright prospects.

The global floriculture trade is estimated at $ 50 billion. Presently more than 10 countries are engaged in floriculture. The acreage under various flower crops is increasing constantly. Developed countries account for more than 90 per cent of the total world trade in floriculture products. European countries take up the majority of the import. The economy of some countries — the Netherlands, Israel, Columbia — is dependent on the floriculture industry.

Japan, North America and Europe have a great demand for floriculture products. Germany followed by the USA with 36 per cent and 22 per cent shares, respectively, of the global import makes the maximum import of floriculture produce. The per capita consumption of the flowers is the maximum in Norway ($ 146) followed by Switzerland ($ 126) and Germany ($ 88), though the maximum consumption of flowers is in the USA ($ 12,500 million) followed by Japan ($ 5465 million) and Italy ($ 4270 million).

Though the floriculture industry has been the monopoly of a few western countries, mainly the Netherlands, the largest trader of floricultural products, with a lion’s share of 70 per cent followed by Columbia and Israel with 12 per cent and 6 per cent share of the global floriculture trade. India’s share is around $ 30 million which is only 0.3 per cent.

Since the production in the traditionally recognised centres — the Netherlands and the USA — have reached the threshold level, the developing countries such as Columbia, Israel, South Africa and Kenya have emerged as additional production centers in the past few decades. They export their floricultural produce to the USA and European countries.

Most of the flowers are grown under protected conditions in covered structures like green houses and poly/glass houses in European and other countries. Due to intense cold, high energy cost, production in these countries is limited during winter months (October to April). Thus they have to depend largely on import to meet their domestic demand as most of the festivals fall during this period when the demand of flowers is at its peak. Hence, the prospects are good for new entrants like India in this trade because of the following plus points.

— Climatic conditions are ideal during the winter months (October to April)

— Labour is cheap.

— Cost of inputs like water, electricity, fertiliser, pesticides, etc is less.

— India is situated centrally in comparison to major flower consumption centres like Europe, Japan and Middle East countries.

— Floriculture has an annual growth potential of 25 to 30 per cent.

— Floriculture industry has 20 to 30 times more foreign exchange earning capability than any other agricultural industry.

— India is a treasure house of tropical and temperate plants, particularly orchids and roses.

— Wide choice of cut flower species and cultivars suitable for successfully growing in different climatic regions of the country.

— Capability of generating gainful employment for a large number of youth in rural and urban areas.

— A global deficit in these products has been predicted.

— Indian floriculture industry is least capital intensive.

— India can offer reliable and quality products.

— Floriculture can create sound economic future of the country.

According to 1995 world statistics, India has 34,000 hectares under flowers and ranks second to China (60,000 hectares) with more than 15 per cent of the total world area of 2.23 lakh hectares. In India, Karnataka has the highest area (14,253 ha) followed by Tamil Nadu 8,384 ha), Maharashtra (4,500 ha) and West Bengal (3,200 ha).

Despite the plus points, India’s performance in the global floriculture market is miserable because of the following bottlenecks:

— Inadequate infrastructure.

— Lack of appropriate plant material.

— Lack of good production technology.

— Non-availability of basic inputs.

— Lack of suitable market surveys and relative information.

— Lack of sale promotion activities.

— Absence of quality control mechanism.

— Lack of coordination between government and floricultural industry.

— Absence of cold chain.

— Exorbitant air freight

— Unorganised domestic market and lack of established marketing channels.

— High import duty on imported inputs.

— Unstreamlined export-import policy.

— Variety patenting.

— Lack of adequate trained personnel.

— Strict lending norms by banks and other financial institutes.

For boosting its floriculture export, India should go in for potential export items like cut flowers, dry flowers, seeds. potted plants and micropropagated plantlets. For boosting export of floriculture and intensive mobilisation of resources, India should undertake the following strategies.

— Creation of appropriate infrastructure for production, post-harvest handling and transportation of floricultural products.

Propping ideal locations for producing export quality floricultural products.

Setting up an export promotion council.

Establishment of appropriate marketing/distribution channels.

Abolition of import duty on inputs.

Reducing air freight.

Provision of loans at low rates of interest to help the entrepreneurs built up infrastructure.

Incentives for the flower growers to boost the industry.

Appropriate training of floricultural personnel.

Need-based problem solving research and development.

With the improvements in the quality of planting material, infrastructure, training programmes in production, harvesting and post-harvest management techniques, backed by adequate marketing support, there is ample scope for even small and marginal entrepreneurs to exploit the global demand of flowers.

Quality must for Kangra tea survival
Brajinder Singh

The Kangra valley known for its scenic beauty since centuries was exposed to the world with the introduction of the flavoury Camellia tea variety some time in 1849 by Dr Jameson, the then Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens, North West Provinces. The veil of tea gardens on the soils of the Kangra valley has added to its tantalising charms. The Kangra flavoury tea acclaimed awards in the world market during the end of the 19th century.

Tea in Kangra had many ups and downs and at one time it headed towards extinction due to the indifferent attitude of owners and its protectors. The period of between 1905 and 1983 was the worst time for this glorious crop.

In 1983, the then Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) complex and presently the institute of Himalyan Bioresource Technology (IHBT) was established in Palampur. Bright sheen came into the eyes of tea growers when of tea experts from the CSIR convinced them that they could regain economically viable livelihood from the century old tea plantations by adopting modern technologies and tea husbandry practices.

Lost glory gradually began to come back. The tea growers once again captured their faith and started participating actively in the tea development activities. But it did not last long as in 1999 a drastic drought brought down the tea production from 17 lakh to 12 lakh kg and adversely affected the quality. Meanwhile, a new parasite “mealy bug” emerged as a serious pest in Kangra tea plantations. During the last year of the century, opening ways for a free allowed the countries with low cost of production to push their tea supplies into India, which jolted the Indian tea market as a whole and Kangra tea in particular.

As a result of these occurrences for the last two years of the century, the Kangra tea growers are finding themselves helpless to make payments to the labour and to provide optimal inputs to sustain their tea gardens. The cooperative tea factories are also unable to make full payments for tea leaf procured from the tea growers. Moreover, huge stocks of tea are piled up in tea factories which are not of good quality and liable to further deteriorate with time.

Why does such situation arise? Is it merely a matter of fate or negligence on the part of every one involved in it? Definitely these are the tea growers themselves, the tea manufacturers who have not discouraged coarse plucking, and ultimately the buyers who accepted low quality tea for sale. If the quality would have been enunciated by all these as has always been stressed by the IHBT at zonal group meetings or during advisory visits to the tea fields, this situation would have not arisen. This way the flavour of Kangra tea which has thrilled millions of tea lovers for centuries will be forgotten.

No doubt that the yield of tea has increased three-fold during the past 15 years, the tea planters could not keep pace with the tea quality despite timely reminders by the tea developmental organisations. The Calcutta market has also not favoured the Kangra tea by creating a special demand and special market, otherwise a meagre quantity manufactured in Kangra could have not been left unsold. It is clear that Kangra tea is blended with other teas and not absorbed as such. As a result, when the big country market is depressed it has worst effect on the Kangra valley.

The only way to survival is quality tea production, and industry should not compromise with it at any cost. It is possible when only quality leaf is plucked from tea gardens. The low and medium grades have to be reduced in the processing units so that only quality tea is stored which can be sold at a premium price at any time. Overall, the survival of Kangra tea bushes is directly dependent on quality plucking and timely tea husbandry intercultural operations. 

Post-harvest handling of vegetables
A. Manu Parmar and Sandeep Chopra

In vegetables, owing to perishable nature, it is quite necessary to adopt an appropriate integrated, low cost system of post-harvest technology right from the pre-harvest stage till the produce reaches the consumer. Various preharvest factors like cultural practices, including irrigation, application of fertiliser and chemical use, soil management, time of sowing, selection of appropriate cultivar and environmental factors, including temperature, light, rainfall, high velocity of wind influence the storage life and processing qualities of vegetables.

Harvesting of vegetables should be done at the proper stage keeping in mind near or the distant market, It should be done preferably in the early morning hours to avoid heat. Proper harvesting is essential as the quality of the harvested produce cannot be improved but it can only be preserved. Curing of roots, bulbs and tubers offers effective means of reducing post-harvest decay and water loss right at the farm level.

Packaging: In our country mostly gunny bags, bamboo baskets and wooden crates lined with newspaper sheets are used for packing which imparts a little easiness of transportation and handling. Sometimes inedible plant parts are also transported like pods, stem etc. which could be used as fodder for animals. In foreign countries, the vegetables are cleaned, trimmed, pre-treated, pre-cooled and packed in bags of transparent film, trays or cartons overwrapped with transparent film, etc. Before despatch it is quite important to improve packaging material and it should be less expensive also.

Transportation: The system mainly adapted in India is road transportation to supply vegetable produce resulting in a lot of damage. The poor road conditions coupled with speedy driving also cause much harm to the produce. The Railways plays a great role in long-distance transportation of vegetables and are more efficient in the use of energy than road transport. The use of railway wagons will continue to be difficult unless there is a comprehensive redesigning of the wagons to carry more perishable produce across the country. Air transport has been adopted with success, especially in the hill regions of India and for exports. Overall, it is necessary to modify the long-distance transport vehicles by introducing more ventilation, reducing temperature, increasing relative humidity , improving loading and unloading systems.

Marketing: The interference of middleman during marketing in mandis uplift the prices of vegetables. The offer low prices to the growers by falsely rejecting the produce as substandard and indulge in other malpractices. At the same time lack of production and planning and climatic factors, certain vegetables gets accumulated in particular areas causing their shortage in some other areas. This results in fluctuation in prices. Retain marketing can be most crucial and important part of the whole system. Within this system the prices are reasonable, cheap and almost the entire range can be available. Mother Dairy in Delhi and the Bangalore Horticultural Society have been doing a commendable job in this direction.

Storage : It is one of the most important aspects of the post-harvest handling as the storage life of almost all the vegetables is short due to dehydration, losses by respiration and rotting, etc. This causes deterioration in quality by wilting, shrinking and weight loss. Refrigeration is one of the useful method for long-term storage of fresh vegetables. Various sprout inhibitors like maleic hydrazide (MH) and naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) have been found to check sprouting, rotting and weight loss. An average farmer does not have access to such method due to high cost. Therefore, ventilated storage like energy cool camber developed by the IARI New Delhi, is of vital importance under Indian conditions.

Processing : Processing of vegetables into different products can reduce post-harvest losses. Processing of various vegetables is picking up in our country. The processed form of vegetables can be exported easily and in turn help our country to earn much needed foreign exchange.

PAU kisan melas in March

Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, will hold the following kisan melas during March:

Ballowal Saunkhri (March 1), Rauni in Patiala (March 5), Ludhiana (March 15 and 16), Bathinda (March 21) and Gurdaspur (March 27).

Farm operations for Feb

Dairy farming

— As there is abundant berseem available, you can reduce cakes 5 per cent in the concentrate, supplement the concentrate with salt and mineral mixture.

— Maintain the record of animal whenever it comes in heat or likely to come in heat and get your animal inseminated within 2-3 months after perturiation.

— To avoid fissuring of teats, do not apply milk but apply ghee (desi) on teats lubrication.

— Get your animals vaccinated for foot and mouth disease if not already done during this winter.

— Protest calves against parasites, get them dewormed with piperazine liquid @4ml/kg body weight first at 10 days of age, then 15 days and then monthly upto three months of age and then three monthly upto one year of age.

— New-born calves need special care in cold weather. They are susceptible to pneumonia and a large number of them die due to this disease. Keep them warm by providing clean and dry bedding. Give them Vitamin “A” concentrate 1 ml daily in milk for three days to be repeated after a month.

— Dry off the pregnant animals two months prior to the expected date of calving and feed 2 kg concentrative mixture as pregnancy allowance along with green fodders.

— Vaccinate the female calves at 5-6 months of age against brucellosis.

— Get your animals examined after three months of mating/artificial insemination.

— Do not feed green, sprouted, soiled or rotten potatoes to dairy animals. These can cause serious and fatal poisoning.

Poultry farming

— Plan your replacement of chicks well in advance for booking with a hatchery of repute.

— Purchase day-old chicks vaccinated against marek’s disease from reputed hatcheries. Ensure proper temperature starting with about (95°F) at least 48 hours before the arrival of chicks and decreasing about 5°F every week upto 70°F. Provide plenty of feed and fresh water. Make sure that brooder house has been properly cleaned disinfected and switch on the brooder 24 hours before arrival of the chicks.

— In case there are indications of round worms in your birds, deworm the flock every month on the fixed date by giving any medicine of your choice i.e. Vermex, Safesol, Verban.

— Cull the uneconomical, old layers regularly because they are increasing your feed costs.

Bee-keeping

— The weather starts warming up by the middle of February. By this time abundant flora of brassica (sarson/raya) and eucalyptus becomes available. Consequently this is the start of ideal period for starting bee-keeping and colony development. Colonies increase worker brood rearing. Rearing of drone brood is also initiated Ectoparastic brood mite (Tropilaelaps clareae) may infested the bee colonies. When winter declines, remove the winter packing of the colonies and clean the bottom board. Examine the colonies on some calm and sunny day for food stores, brood rearing and performance of the queen bee. Provide stimulative feeding, if needed. Depending upon the performance of the colonies, provide raised combs/farmers with comb formation wax seets. Dust sulphur powder on the top bars of bee frames @ 10 g per chamber (i.e. 1g/frame) to prevent/control the ectoparasitic mile. The beekeepers who have already migrated their apiaries (bee colonies) to sarson/raya belt can extract brassica honey in the end of February.

Fish farming

— Apply organic manure (20g of FYM of 10 g of poultry droppings or 18 g of a mixture of FYM (3 parts) and poultry droppings 9(1 part), and inorganic fertilisers (2.4 g single superphosphate and 40 kg urea) per acre of newly constructed ponds or in ponds which have been dried up after total harvesting and refilled for the next culture cycle. This should be done in the third or last week of February.

— Resume organic manuring (120 kg/acre/week of FYM or 60 kg/acre/week of poultry manure or 120 kg/acre week of biogas slurry) and inorganic fertiliser (16 kg/acre/ week of single superphosphate) in which these were suspended during winter.

— Resume supplementary feeding (a mixture of deoiled rice or wheat bran 44%, deoiled mustard oil cake/soyabean oil cake/sunflower oil cake 44%, fish meal/meat meal 10%, mineral mixture/bone meal 1.5% and common salt 0.5%)

— Progressive Farming, PAU