Himachal apple growers apprised of orchard management practices

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Himachal Pradesh, organised a one-day capacity building workshop on “Sustainable Apple Orchard Management” at Nerwa in Shimla district on Friday. A large number of apple growers from the Chopal region, along with officials of the Department of Horticulture and experts from leading institutions, participated in the workshop. The experts shared information about the latest scientific and modern orchard management practices.

Kushal Mehta, a subject matter specialist, stressed the importance of adopting sustainable and scientific orchard management practices. He highlighted the need to follow the Fungicide Resistance Action Committee (FRAC) guidelines for disease management in apple orchards to prevent the development of fungicide resistance. Surender Jasta, another subject matter specialist, demonstrated the scientific method of collecting leaf samples for nutrient analysis.

Jayant Negi, Regional Business Development Manager, Zentron Labs, highlighted the importance of modern marketing systems, market linkages, colour sorting and grading. The programme commenced with the welcome address by Manilokeshwar Chauhan, Director and State Head, CII-Himachal Pradesh. Sachin Sharma, Director, Agro Farm Venture Pvt. Ltd, explained the quality parameters required for storing apples in Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storage. He told the growers that Total Soluble Solids (TSS), starch index, fruit firmness (pressure) and seed colour were the key indicators for selecting fruits suitable for CA storage.

During the technical session, experts from Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, delivered lectures on various aspects of scientific apple production. While Naveen Sharma spoke on scientific orchard management, canopy management, balanced nutrition, pruning, flowering, fruit set, crop regulation and fruit quality, Sangeeta Sharma dwelt on integrated pest management (IPM), focusing on mite management, woolly apple aphid, San Jose scale and the safe and judicious use of pesticides.