Annual fruit plant sale begins at Nauni horticulture varsity

Solan, December 12

The annual sale of temperate fruit material at Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, and its various centres across the state has received a good response with 35,445 plants having been bought by 1,186 farmers in the first two days.

The sales, which began yesterday, have been advanced by three weeks on the demand of the farmers. Every year the planting material used to be sold in the first week of January.

As many as 13,121 plants were bought by 404 farmers today while 782 farmers had bought over 22,324 plants of different fruit varieties from three nurseries.

Various varieties of apple, pear, plum, apricot, peach, nectarine, cherry, kiwifruit, walnut, pecan-nut, persimmon, grapes, pomegranate and almond, were bought by the farmers during this sale.

Farmers from different parts of Himachal and the nearby states travelled to the university and research stations to buy fruit plants of different varieties. This year, farmers have shown interest in diversification of fruit crops.

This year, the total number of plants available for sale at the university and outstations is over 2.72 lakh. Various varieties of apple, kiwi, pomegranate, apricot, peach, nectarine, cherry, walnut, persimmon, pear, plum will be available to the farmers during this sale. Around 50,000 clonal rootstock of apple will also be available.