Experts visit Nauni University, discuss kiwi fruit production

Tribune News Service

Solan, November 1

A four-member team from New Zealand High Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, today visited Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, to explore the possibilities of improvement and development of kiwi fruit production.

Other key aspects like value chain activities in North Western and North Eastern Himalayan region were also explored by the experts.

The team comprised Dr Stephanie Montegomery, World Bank consultant for Australia and South East Asia, Daniel Black, kiwi fruit expert for the Northland region of New Zealand and Chirag Bhatia and Shiva Reddy, Consultant Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

The team along with Dr Sanjeev Chauhan, Director Research and Dr DP Sharma, Head of Department, Fruit Science, visited kiwi fruit orchards at Narag and Daro Dewaria in Sirmaur and Shamti in Solan. They interacted with the farmers in their orchards and also demonstrated training and pruning techniques being followed in New Zealand.

The team also visited an experimental field of the Department of Fruit Science which is the first commercial orchard of kiwi fruit in the country planted in 1985. They also visited the nursery area and laboratories of the university. A meeting was also held under the chairmanship of Vice Chancellor Prof Rajeshwar Chandel to discuss the feasibility of exploring kiwi fruit as a diversification fruit for the mid-hills of the entire Himalayan region. The feasibility of cooperation between New Zealand and India was also explored.

Dr DP Sharma presented details on the standardisation of the package of practices (PoP) of kiwi fruit and the strength of the university with respect to scientific manpower, published research papers, completed theses by MSc and PhD students on climatic data, field and laboratory infrastructure.

Progress made in the nursery production was also demonstrated as university is the pioneer institute for standardisation of PoP of kiwi fruit cultivation in India. The members said that the university should be a Centre of Excellence for kiwi fruit in India.

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