The Hindu : `Mango, litchi trees damaged in cold wave last year'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 10, 2004

National

National

`Mango, litchi trees damaged in cold wave last year'

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI, JAN. 9. The prolonged cold spell has so far spared crops from major damage this year, but last year's frost and cold spell caused large-scale damage to agriculture crops, horticultural plantations, forest trees and livestock including fisheries in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and the Northeastern States in January 2003.

The damage to fruit plantations was so severe then that many farmers uprooted their well-established mango and litchi trees.

The quality of produce in some of the fruit species also suffered, says a report prepared by three agriculture scientists of the Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR). Crop yields were lower by 10 to 40 per cent in wheat, 25 per cent in gram, 50 to 70 per cent in mustard and 60 to 95 per cent in amla compared to a normal year.

Early sown winter maize in Bihar and the boro rice in Assam also suffered due to cold. There was a large-scale genetic variation in seedling mortality, recovery after planting, leaf yellowing, grain sterility and unproductive tillers.

The report submitted to the Minister for Agriculture, Rajnath Singh, on Thursday, was prepared by J.S. Samra, Gurbachan Singh and Y.S. Ramakrishna. It gives a guideline on how to minimise the impact of the cold wave on horticulture and rabi plantations.

Speaking to The Hindu, one of the authors, Gurbachan Singh, said this year there was not much damage as there was no frost. Last year the cold spell was preceded by frost which had an adverse impact on crops and horticulture plantations.

The report noted that the growth of carp fish in Punjab, Haryana and Bihar was arrested during the cold wave of December to January, 2003, whereas there was five to 10 per cent mortality in prawns. In Bihar mrigal, rohu and catla suffered high mortality due to weather conditions.

The orchards of mango, litchi, guava, ber and kinnow in Punjab were hit resulting in reduced size or poor quality of the fruit. The plant mortality in mango varieties was highest in Dashehari, followed by Amrapali and least in Langra with 18 to 48 per cent flowering damage in parts of Jammu, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh. The mortality rate in papaya ranged from 40 to 83 per cent in the Shiwalik region, plains of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and the northeast.

In the Doon valley of Uttranchal, plant mortality was nearly 80 per cent in less than two-year-old plantations, 15 per cent in two to four years, 10 per cent in more than four-year-old mango plantations and damage to growing tips in matured trees.

In Shilliong, the damage to Amrapali mango was 100 per cent, followed by pine apple, sapota, Assam lemon, jack fruit and peach.

The damage to fruit trees was relatively more in low-lying areas where cold air settled and remained for a longer time on ground. But temperate fruits such as apple, peach, plum and cherry gave higher yield due to extended chilling last year.

One of the best way to reduce the impact of the cold wave is to go in for proper selection of fruit species and varieties as per the site conditions.

Apart from that, wind breaks or shelter belts should be provided. There should be frequent irrigation, smoking, covering young fruit plants with thatches or plastic sheets, air mixing, maintenance of maximum depth of water in fish ponds and their aeration are some of the farming precautions for managing cold wave injuries.

For the rest, the weather forewarning by the India Meteorological Department and the ICAR should be heeded and preparations should be made well in advance to shelter crops and livestock.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National