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| April 14, 2006 | Friday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 15, 1427 |
Frost after-effects damaging for mango
RAHIM YAR KHAN, April 13: The mango production will suffer greatly in the district owing to the frost in months of December and January that has brought about severe damage to mango orchards.
According to the 2003-04 survey of the agriculture department, at least 56,000 acres of land consisted of mango orchards in the district, including 35,315 acres in R.Y Khan tehsil, 10,710 acres in Sadiqabad tehsil, 6,862 acres in Khanpur tehsil and 3,209 acres in Liaquatpur tehsil.
The survey for the year 2005-06, also completed by the department, estimates that 70,000 acres of land will comprise mango orchards this year.
Multan and Rahim Yar Khan are considered the most important districts in Punjab as far as the mango production is concerned. The fruit produced here ranks best in taste.
About 70 to 80 varieties of mango are grown alone in the R.Y Khan district. Chonsa, regarded as the best quality, is grown on 31,615 acres, Langra on 7,170 acres, Sindhri on 4,076 acres, Dosehri on 3,729 acres, Anwar Ratol on 2,231 acres Fajri on 1,230 acres and other varieties on 6,000 acre.
In the last week of December and the first week of January, frost badly damaged the mango trees. Some 80 per cent of one to five years old trees were damaged severely while branches of trees more than five years old shrivelled, affecting flowering.
Some trees are totally damaged while farmers are cutting the affected branches to save the remaining trees. The after-effects of the frost are likely to affect yield.
According to an estimate, the mango production is expected to fall by to 25 to 35 per cent this year.
District officer (fruit and vegetable programme) Sardar Muhammad Akbar Khan said although the change of weather had caused the damage, diseases, such as, inflorescence initiation, powdery mildew and entheric nose were also found at the flowering stage.
Since these diseases spread through air, he said this had badly affected flowers, fruit, leaves and stem. These diseases were widely found in the district and an insecticides spray was necessary to fight them. Farmers not applying insecticides would bear heavy losses, he warned.
He expected the overall damage around 30 per cent.
To overcome these damages, he said a research was conducted at the Agricultural University Faisalabad. Last year, he said the information regarding watering and agricultural literature was dispatched to some 3,200 farmers of mango orchards by post.
DDO (agriculture) Mian Imtiaz Ahmed said that for better fruit and vegetable yields, the agriculture department had launched a four-year Fruit and Vegetable Development Programme which would continue till 2009.
According to this project, he said that work would be carried out for the identification of a mango variety, its certification and ‘true to type plant nursery.’
Besides, efforts would also be made to make 1,500 farmers members of this project. A farmer field school would be established while a five-acre plot would be allocated for this purpose.
He said farmers would be gathered after every fortnight for training. He expected the project would show positive results. He said that a mango exhibition would be held in Rahim Yar Khan this year.
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