Natural farming revives apple orchard in Solan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, September 5

A deserted apple orchard at the Regional Horticulture Research Station of the Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan, at Mashobra near here had been revived by introducing the Subhash Palekar Natural Farming (SPNF) technique and now the orchard is producing apples and inter-crops.

“The SPNF intervention on the orchard measuring less than one hectare with the same old plants, which had to be abandoned some years back for lack of resources, has shown encouraging results over the last two years. With the use of natural inputs like “jeevaamrit and ghanjeevaamrit” prepared from dung and urine of desi cow, the overall health of the orchard has improved,” said Associate Director at the Research Station, Dr Pankaj Gupta.

The SPNF is non-chemical natural farming concept given by Padma Shri Subhash Palekar and is based on farm inputs prepared from urine and dung of indigenous cow. It reduces the cost of cultivation drastically as the farmer is not required to buy inputs from the market.

“Now, the terminal growth is revived and the soil structure has improved. The earthworm population has increased and the plants are healthy and leaf size is good,” said scientist, Plant Pathology at the Research Station, Dr Usha Sharma, who is supervising the trial. The experiment will continue for five years to establish and validate the success of the technique.

The apple orchard, which had been giving negligible returns for many years, gave estimated gross returns of around Rs 3,61,162 per hectare in 2019 which increased to Rs 5,46,964 in 2020.