The hailstorms on Wednesday and Thursday in the region have damaged the ambia bahar crop of orange to a large extent. The rain and hail have caused almost 50% fruit drop at most places. This is the second consecutive year that orange growers are facing the fury of nature and suffering huge losses.
Taking note of the situation, the National Research Centre for Citrus (NRCC) has asked orange growers to take necessary precautions to prevent any further loss of fruits. Director NRCC VJ Shivankar told TOI that a team of scientists from the centre visited five villages in Kalmeshwar taluka to check on the quality and amount of damage, and found that the crop was severely damaged.
"In fact, due to very high speed winds accompanying the hailstorm, trees have been uprooted in many orchards. At some places, the hail has damaged parts of trees like bark and stem so badly that it will take another 2-3 years for the trees to get back to normal health again. NRCC is issuing guidelines for farmers to prevent any further loss due to these weather conditions, which may cause phytophthora infection," he said.
Besides Kalmeshwar, reports of damage are also pouring in from Ramtek, Kondhali, Saoner, and Katol belts. Shivankar says that though the damage is sporadic, the level of damage at affected places is very bad.
This year hailstorm and other weather conditions had severely affected the fruit formation in orange. The fruit size too si small. The fruits that are of normal size are dropping in large numbers in the wind and hail.
Kundan Kalambe, a farmer from Tiwsa in Amravati district, said, "This year there has been huge damage due to fruit drop. The damage is almost 50%. We do follow NRCC and PKV instructions, but in reality these measures cannot restore damage to desired levels. Only a minimum of fruit crop can be saved using these chemicals and techniques."
Uday Patil, Nagpur district superintending agriculture officer, and Nitin Rathi, a Zilla Parishad (ZP) member, said that the administration has already formed a committee to assess the damage on behalf of revenue and agriculture departments and the ZP.
Taking note of the situation, the National Research Centre for Citrus (NRCC) has asked orange growers to take necessary precautions to prevent any further loss of fruits. Director NRCC VJ Shivankar told TOI that a team of scientists from the centre visited five villages in Kalmeshwar taluka to check on the quality and amount of damage, and found that the crop was severely damaged.
"In fact, due to very high speed winds accompanying the hailstorm, trees have been uprooted in many orchards. At some places, the hail has damaged parts of trees like bark and stem so badly that it will take another 2-3 years for the trees to get back to normal health again. NRCC is issuing guidelines for farmers to prevent any further loss due to these weather conditions, which may cause phytophthora infection," he said.
Besides Kalmeshwar, reports of damage are also pouring in from Ramtek, Kondhali, Saoner, and Katol belts. Shivankar says that though the damage is sporadic, the level of damage at affected places is very bad.
This year hailstorm and other weather conditions had severely affected the fruit formation in orange. The fruit size too si small. The fruits that are of normal size are dropping in large numbers in the wind and hail.
Kundan Kalambe, a farmer from Tiwsa in Amravati district, said, "This year there has been huge damage due to fruit drop. The damage is almost 50%. We do follow NRCC and PKV instructions, but in reality these measures cannot restore damage to desired levels. Only a minimum of fruit crop can be saved using these chemicals and techniques."
Uday Patil, Nagpur district superintending agriculture officer, and Nitin Rathi, a Zilla Parishad (ZP) member, said that the administration has already formed a committee to assess the damage on behalf of revenue and agriculture departments and the ZP.
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